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Aspect and Discourse Function: The French Simple Past in Newspaper Usage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Linda R. Waugh and
Monique Monville-Burston
Linda R. Waugh
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Monique Monville-Burston
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne
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Abstract

Analysis has shown that discourse function is an essential facet of the meaning of grammatical elements; e.g. that perfective and imperfective aspect manifest discourse foregrounding and backgrounding. By focusing on the French S[imple] P[ast] and by analysing newspaper usage, we demonstrate that foregrounding is one result of two properties inherent to SP: DETACHMENT within a universe of discourse of a DIMENSIONALIZED FIGURE. But SP has other, quite different, discourse functions, in addition to important cognitive/referential, expressive, and pragmatic meanings—all of which are also attributable to detachment and dimensionalization. Thus SP (and, by extension, verbal grammatical categories in general) manifests a complex variety of functions which must be accounted for by any complete study. Discourse analysis should not supplant, but rather complement, more traditional semantic analysis.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , December 1986, pp. 846 - 877
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 by Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

*

We are grateful to the following for their advice on an earlier draft of this paper: Philippe Bourdin, Jack L. Burston, Suzanne Fleischman, William Frawley, Nancy Gabriel, Paul Hopper, Marcia S. Howden, Marie-Claude Paris, and John Robertson. We are also indebted to grants from Cornell University and LaTrobe University which funded travel between the United States, Australia, and France. Authorship of this work is shared equally.

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