The cognitive-discursive evolution of peripheral coordinating elements in French
Keywords:
coordinating elements, grammaticalisation, cognitive mechanisms, semantic map, corpus data, French, discourse markers, typology of shifts, language evolutionAbstract
This study examines the cognitive-discursive evolution of peripheral coordinating elements in French. Diachronic semantic maps were constructed to visualise developmental trajectories of the analysed units. Four key aspects of this process were identified: 1) functional-discursive shifts; 2) mechanisms of semantic transformation; 3) structural-systemic transformations; 4) stylistic and pragmatic dynamics. The developed classification matrix, comprising 17 specific types of transformations grouped into six macrocategories, constitutes an integrated typology of semantic-functional shifts within this linguistic subsystem. It has been established that peripheral coordinating elements represent dynamic, cognitively motivated, and functionally adaptable units.
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