THE SMERGENT SYNTAX OF PI~E-SENTENTIAL TURN OPENINGS

Spoken French contains a rich variety of pre-sentential discourse particles playing stn~ctural, interactional nd pragmatic roles. In 65 % of some 3700 utterances in classroom discussions and ordinary conve~':ations, of both native and non-native French speakers, we find intona~,ionally unitary turn-operfings containing up to five of these particles. Distributional analysis reveals strong ordering constraints among the particles, with eight pm adigmatic 'slots ' available. The first two positions structure the transition from heater's to speaker's roles (tm,km.... ah bon...). UsuMly, ~he following two positions allow a bi-morphemic reaction (mats out.... ben non...) to the interactional nd illocutionary validity of the preceding turn, while the fifth and sixth slots contain analogous reactions to its informative content. The remaining slots contain tag-like elemems which play a largely prosodic role. Quantitative analysis of particle co-occurrence is based on the null hypothesis that occurrences in different slots are statistically independenL A comparison of observed versus predicted frequencies detects particle c.~mbinations u ed more, or less, thar ~ could be aceoumed for by the freqtrencms of ~heir in:~Mdual components, uggesting emergent coiloaaiioas, and functionally incompatible co~onents, respecdvdy. Finally, we give a brief analysis of the semantic-pragmatic functions Of some particle combinations