Papers by Alexander Guryev
Lingvisticae Investigationes, Dec 5, 2022
Journal of French Language Studies, 2021
Cet article analyse, dans une perspective comparative, deux classes de marqueurs de reformulation... more Cet article analyse, dans une perspective comparative, deux classes de marqueurs de reformulation en français et en russe. La première est construite autour d’un indéfini en autre (rus. inoj) : fr. autrement dit, en d’autres termes ; rus. inače govorja, inymi slovami ; la seconde est historiquement dérivée d’une clause verbale finie ce + est (rus. to + estʹ) : fr. c’est-à-dire, rus. to estʹ. Il sera démontré que le français et le russe partagent bon nombre de propriétés dans le fonctionnement de ces marqueurs, qu’il s’agisse de leur fonctionnement grammatical ou sémantico-pragmatique. Il sera aussi argumenté que les marqueurs de la deuxième classe font l’objet d’un stade de grammaticalisation, mais aussi de pragmaticalisation, plus avancé et sont, par conséquent, plus appropriés à des interactions spontanées que les marqueurs construits autour d’un indéfini en autre.
This chapter explores in a theoretical manner the potential correlations, previously suggested by... more This chapter explores in a theoretical manner the potential correlations, previously suggested by Heine et al. (2015), between hemispheric specialization in neurolinguistics and a dual organization of discourse. The dual processing of language is represented here by the pragma-syntax, the level at which grammatical units manifest shared mental representations in discursive memory and generate inferences. While it is widely accepted that the left hemisphere of the brain is of utmost importance for morphosyntactic structuring of discourse, we will argue that the right hemisphere is crucial in processing operations at the pragma-syntactic level. Following a review of the questions surrounding hemispheric specialization, and of the language phenomena it can affect, we will present the pragma-syntactic model of human grammar. This paper will then suggest how it can effectively describe the phenomena whose comprehension has been previously reported in a number of studies as being dependent on the intact activity of the right brain, notably: irony, indirect speech acts and connectives.
« Du rôle des paramètres morphosyntaxiques dans la sélection des interrogatives », In : M.-J. Béguelin, A. Coveney & A. Guryev (eds). L’interrogative en français. Berne : Peter Lang, pp. 153-181., 2018
In his study the author examines variation in yes/no questions by providing an analysis of 1,259 ... more In his study the author examines variation in yes/no questions by providing an analysis of 1,259 interrogative structures extracted from about 4,600 text messages of the Swiss SMS French Corpus. Recent studies carried out on corpora of spoken European French have all revealed the massive use by speakers of the variant preserving the subject-verb order (SV 'Tu as des cours ?'), the relatively rare use of the 'est-ce que' variant (ESV 'Est-ce que tu as des cours ?') and the virtual absence of the variant formed by subject clitic inversion (V-Scl 'As-tu des cours ?'). However, like any other type of computer-mediated communication, texting is generally characterised by a set of parameters associated with both oral and written genres: the author shows that in the SMS data V-Scl is preferred to ESV and may even be used in the same text message with SV. Convinced that variation phenomena should be framed within a multidimensional approach (i.e. in terms of interplay between various linguistic and extralinguistic factors), the author focuses here on the role of morphosyntactic parameters which can affect the choice of yes/no interrogative variants. Based on the analysis of the collected data, it is possible, according to the author, to distinguish two types of linguistic environment: low-variability vs. high-variability environments. While the first one includes all syntactic contexts favouring the massive use of SV, the second type covers contexts which are relatively neutral in the selection of variants, as is the case for constructions with modal verbs or non-clitic arguments.
Critères de sélection des interrogatives en français : un éclairage par le biais du texto. In I. Behr & F. Lefeuvre (éds), Le Genre bref : des contraintes grammaticales, lexicales et énonciatives à son exploitation ludique et esthétique. Frank & Timme. , 2019
L'auteur discute le choix de la forme interrogative dans des écrits en français informel soumis à... more L'auteur discute le choix de la forme interrogative dans des écrits en français informel soumis à une (relative) pression de place, les SMS, par rapport à l’oral informel d’une part, par rapport à divers facteurs interactionnels d’autre part.
Вестник Московского университета. Серия 9. Филология. , 2018
This study, based on a corpus analysis of 300 uses of the connector 'to est’' in
Russian (Eng. 't... more This study, based on a corpus analysis of 300 uses of the connector 'to est’' in
Russian (Eng. 'that is', Lat. 'id est'), focuses on pragmatic aspects of reformulation as one type of logico-semantic relations. Being an efficient discursive instrument, which allows the speaker to stop syntagmatic structuring of discourse in order to restate a “failed” text fragment in a more optimal way, reformulation can be of two types: local (micro-syntactic) and large-scale (macro-syntactic). If micro-syntactic reformulation consists in replacing one dependent grammatical constituent with another, macro-syntactic reformulation involves two or more grammatically independent clauses. Following the theoretical framework of the Groupe de Fribourg (2012), the article highlights the pragma-syntactic mechanisms of two types of reformulation and their relationship with some cognitive operations involved in discourse processing.
Key words: reformulation; pragmatics; micro-syntax; macro-syntax; logico-semantic relations; semantics; discourse processing.
Русский язык в научном освещении, 2018
The article focuses on one type of logico-semantic relation and its markers traditionally identif... more The article focuses on one type of logico-semantic relation and its markers traditionally identified in Russian grammar as “explanatory” (pojasnitel’nye). It is argued that the term “explanation” designates the communicative function of a given text element and, therefore, is inappropriate when applied to logico-semantic relations. Furthermore, considering the heterogeneity of ‘explanatory’ markers, it is suggested that they form two distinct groups. The first group conveys the semantic relation of specification ('a imenno', 'točnee', 'naprimer', 'vključaja', etc.). The second group consists of reformulation markers, which may act either as explanation ('to est’') or as paraphrase ('inymi slovami', etc.). The article then highlights the semantics and the function of the reformulation marker 'to est’' and points out its distinctive properties in comparison with other markers showing similar logico-semantic relations.
Keywords: connectives, discourse relations, restatement, reformulation, Russian, semantics, text linguistics, to est’.
In classical sociolinguistic studies, the variety in French interrogative structures is accounted... more In classical sociolinguistic studies, the variety in French interrogative structures is accounted for in terms of the different socio-stylistic values that they express. However the study of SMS data provides us with evidence that this approach needs to be challenged. This paper argues in favor of an alternative approach, which views various interrogative structures as "multiple forms in concurrence" (Quillard 2000) with their own structural and functional particularities, instead of viewing various interrogative structures as alternative ways of expressing the same thing. In line with this position we will discuss some methodological issues and the design of this approach, leading us through the article from the annotation of linguistic data to some preliminary results of the study.
Introduction to a issue of TRANEL (Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique) on linguistics in textin... more Introduction to a issue of TRANEL (Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique) on linguistics in texting (both SMS and WhatsApp)
In European French, three main variants can be used to construct a yes/no question: (i) intonatio... more In European French, three main variants can be used to construct a yes/no question: (i) intonation question Tu vas au cours? (ii) ‘est-ce que’ question Est-ce que tu vas au cours? and (iii) subject clitic inversion Vas-tu au cours? A traditional explanation of the variation in French interrogative forms, which is widely used in L2 French classroom learning, would be to consider these variants as expressing different socio-stylistic values: respectively informal, neutral, or elevated. However, the main result of this research, based on a study of 1’659 yes/no questions extracted from 4’624 text messages of the Swiss SMS Corpus (http://www.sms4science.uzh.ch), suggests that this explanation needs to be challenged and one should consider multiple factors to trigger variation in French yes/no questions, among which we at least have communicative and linguistic constraints.
Le français est connu pour la variété de ses formes interrogatives. Dans le seul cas des question... more Le français est connu pour la variété de ses formes interrogatives. Dans le seul cas des questions totales, il existe les trois tours classiques Tu vas au cours? Est-ce que tu vas au cours? Vas-tu au cours? Une hypothèse courante consiste à dire que chacune de ces structures est porteuse d‘une valeur socio-stylistique particulière (familière, neutre ou soutenue). L‘étude présentée ici, fondée sur l‘examen des questions totales dans un corpus de SMS, montre cependant que la réalité est plus complexe. Dans le corpus considéré, la production des interrogatives est soumise, selon toute apparence, à des contraintes pragmatiques, découlant du type de communication concerné ; il faut compter en outre avec le figement de certaines structures, et avec l‘interférence de facteurs personnels et extralinguistiques.
Drafts by Alexander Guryev
Books by Alexander Guryev
Béguelin, M.-J., Coveney, A. & Guryev, A. (éds.) (2018). L’Interrogative en français. Berne : Peter Lang. , 2018
Du fait de leur intrigante variété formelle, les interrogatives totales et partielles du français... more Du fait de leur intrigante variété formelle, les interrogatives totales et partielles du français ont fait l'objet, au cours des années écoulées, d'une foule de recherches en syntaxe et en sociolinguistique, alors que d'autres courants tels que la rhétorique ou la pragmatique rivalisaient d'ingéniosité pour rendre compte de leur variabilité sémantique. Afin d'enrichir le débat, le présent ouvrage propose une réflexion à large spectre sur les tours interrogatifs du français, leur marquage syntaxique et intonatif, les paramètres linguistiques ou sociaux susceptibles de déclencher, dans un contexte donné, le choix d'une variante interrogative plutôt qu'une autre ; l'ouvrage traite en outre des propriétés sémantiques et inférentielles des interrogatives, ainsi que des fonctions discursives et narratologiques qui leur sont dévolues. Les auteurs appuient leurs analyses sur des exemples attestés, parfois tirés de corpus spécifiques (dialogues de films de banlieue, textos, Fables de La Fontaine, bandes dessinées…). Ils manifestent un éclectisme théorique qui nous semble nécessaire pour appréhender de manière non réductrice cet objet complexe, aux multiples facettes.
Thesis Chapters by Alexander Guryev
This thesis is part of the project FNS Sinergia 136230 "SMS communication in Switzerland: Facets ... more This thesis is part of the project FNS Sinergia 136230 "SMS communication in Switzerland: Facets of Linguistic Variation in a Multilingual Country". The aim of the thesis is to provide analysis of the variety of French interrogative structures in the Swiss SMS Corpus. It also attempts to show how the data originating from spontaneous electronic interaction (instant messaging, texting, WhatsApp, etc.) allows us to broaden the scope and to take a new look at the phenomena of syntactic variation. The French language is known for the wide variety of interrogative structures: 3 variants for yes/no questions (Tu vas au cours ?, Vas-tu au cours ?, Est-ce que tu vas au cours ?), and at least six or eight variants for wh- questions (Tu vas où ?, Où tu vas ?, Où vas-tu ?, Où va ton frère ?, Où est-ce que tu vas ?, Qui va au cours ?, Où c’est que tu vas ?, C’est où que tu vas ?). Therefore, our goal is to understand how SMS writers make the choice between available French interrogative structures. The hypothesis of this study is functionalist: it postulates that under the pressure of various linguistic and non-linguistic constraints, the SMS writer chooses that variant which allows him to best achieve given communicative goals. In order to identify different types of constraints or factors that may influence the choice of variants, a multidimensional analysis model is applied which focuses simultaneously on grammatical, interactional and sociolinguistic parameters.
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Papers by Alexander Guryev
Russian (Eng. 'that is', Lat. 'id est'), focuses on pragmatic aspects of reformulation as one type of logico-semantic relations. Being an efficient discursive instrument, which allows the speaker to stop syntagmatic structuring of discourse in order to restate a “failed” text fragment in a more optimal way, reformulation can be of two types: local (micro-syntactic) and large-scale (macro-syntactic). If micro-syntactic reformulation consists in replacing one dependent grammatical constituent with another, macro-syntactic reformulation involves two or more grammatically independent clauses. Following the theoretical framework of the Groupe de Fribourg (2012), the article highlights the pragma-syntactic mechanisms of two types of reformulation and their relationship with some cognitive operations involved in discourse processing.
Key words: reformulation; pragmatics; micro-syntax; macro-syntax; logico-semantic relations; semantics; discourse processing.
Keywords: connectives, discourse relations, restatement, reformulation, Russian, semantics, text linguistics, to est’.
Drafts by Alexander Guryev
Books by Alexander Guryev
Thesis Chapters by Alexander Guryev
Russian (Eng. 'that is', Lat. 'id est'), focuses on pragmatic aspects of reformulation as one type of logico-semantic relations. Being an efficient discursive instrument, which allows the speaker to stop syntagmatic structuring of discourse in order to restate a “failed” text fragment in a more optimal way, reformulation can be of two types: local (micro-syntactic) and large-scale (macro-syntactic). If micro-syntactic reformulation consists in replacing one dependent grammatical constituent with another, macro-syntactic reformulation involves two or more grammatically independent clauses. Following the theoretical framework of the Groupe de Fribourg (2012), the article highlights the pragma-syntactic mechanisms of two types of reformulation and their relationship with some cognitive operations involved in discourse processing.
Key words: reformulation; pragmatics; micro-syntax; macro-syntax; logico-semantic relations; semantics; discourse processing.
Keywords: connectives, discourse relations, restatement, reformulation, Russian, semantics, text linguistics, to est’.