Deux types d'imparfait atténuatif

Lotfi Abouda (1)

1 LLL - Laboratoire Ligérien de Linguistique

The author shows that, according to their syntactic properties, the statements in which the imperfect is used instead of the present tense - and is therefore interpreted as an attenuation marker - can be divided into two categories, which also happen to fulfill two distinct pragmatic functions. One of them aims at attenuating a given speech act (of the stating or asking type), while the other one specifically provides a justification of the speaker's material intrusion into the addressee's sphere.

Mots clés: Imparfait; Modalisation; Atténuation

Domaines: Linguistique

Lotfi Abouda. Deux types d'imparfait atténuatif. Langue française, 2004, Procédés de modalisation : l'atténuation, 142 (1 ), pp.58-74. ⟨halshs-01471276⟩