Communicative constraints on right-peripheral alors : A contrastive study of conversation, SMS, and Chat

One recurrent issue in grammaticalization studies is to define the factors that influence the migration of linguistic expressions in peripheral position (Traugott 2007). In this paper, we aim to tackle this question on the basis of a multi‐modal study of the French polysemous discourse marker alors (‘then, at that time, so’) in right-peripheral position. In line with studies on alors (Degand & Fagard 2011, Hansen 1997), on discourse markers (Brinton 1996) and on turn-taking (Waltereit & Detges 2004), we assume that the position in right periphery favors interpersonal and modal functions (Traugott 2007, Waltereit & Detges 2007). Hence, the hypothesis of this research is that the communicative modality and the situational context influence the position and the interpersonal functions of alors. Degand and Fagard (2011) found that alors moved over time from medial position to left peripheral position, and only recently to right peripheral position. Traugott (2010) suggested that this migration in peripheral position is likely to be accompanied by a process of (inter)subjectification. In the present study, we take a synchronic point of view on right-peripheral alors in three different communicative modalities: spontaneous face-to-face conversation, SMS language (texting), and instant messaging (chat). In a pilot study, it was found that the frequency of right-peripheral alors diverges in the three modalities: 7.3% in instant messaging, 13% in spontaneous conversation, and 22.9% in texting. To investigate the factors at play in right-peripheral positioning, we extended our sample of analysis so as to have 100 random occurrences of alors in right position in each of our corpora. Analyzing each of these occurrences for relational meaning, mood type and turn organization, our preliminary results for alors indicate that it is mostly used to conclude (confirmation request or confirmation) in text messages and in spontaneous conversation, while it is used as a metadiscursive marker (keep the information going) in chat. Further fine‐tuning is needed but these results seem to suggest that the use of RP‐alors is more speaker‐oriented in SMS and in spontaneous conversation, while it would be more addressee‐oriented in chat