MATCHING SYNTAX AND PRAGMATICS - A TYPOLOGY OF TOPIC AND TOPIC-RELATED CONSTRUCTIONS IN SPOKEN FRENCH

Because of the asymmetry of information transfer, the syntax of spoken French is characterized by a large number of specific devices. To some degree, it is thus a variety of language apart from standard written French. Topic-related constructions-both types and tokens-are obviously more frequent in the spoken variety. It is possible to hypothesize that the syntactic devices specifically associated with topichood match pragmatic functions and strategies. Although the functions are closely integrated into real speech, some of them are directly correlated with constructions: to reidentify the given, to anchor what is said in the context, to anchor it in the addressee's speech, to promote to existence, to shift the information focus, to contrast, to classify, to reshape in one's experience, to focus on a referential subpart.