The Verb aller: Emancipation from the Immediate Discourse Context

In addition to describing a manner of motion, the French verb aller is used as a verb of motion followed by (1) a locative prepositional phrase introducing the anticipated destination or (2) an infinitive designating an anticipated action or, by an extension of this meaning, a proximate future event...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of French language studies Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 343 - 359
Main Author Vandeloise, Claude
Format Journal Article
LanguageFrench
Published 01.11.2007
Subjects
Cognitive Linguistics
Discourse Context
French
Lexical Semantics
Origin of Language
Polysemy
Semantic Change
Verbs
Word Meaning
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0959-2695

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Summary:In addition to describing a manner of motion, the French verb aller is used as a verb of motion followed by (1) a locative prepositional phrase introducing the anticipated destination or (2) an infinitive designating an anticipated action or, by an extension of this meaning, a proximate future event. It is argued that aller obliges the interlocutor to detach himself/herself from the context of the utterance even if it is uttered at the moment of action; unlike hier 'yesterday', which shares this property, aller establishes a link between the immediate discourse context & a subsequent context & is therefore an important turning-point between a primitive language of reference & a language that can create discourse contexts based on imagination. This role of aller in the evolution of language is captured in a proposed rule that subsumes (1) & (2): the subject of aller is within the context of utterance, whereas the complement is realized outside it. References. Adapted from the source document
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ISSN:0959-2695