The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards.
This paper investigates possible explanations for the sudden diffusion of the French expression à travers, meaning ‘(way) through/across’, from the middle of the 18th century onwards. From that moment, à travers became remarkably more used than the similar expression au travers (de), and also relat...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO
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| Series: | Corela |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/corela/14959 |
| _version_ | 1797313919168020480 |
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| author | Thomas Hoelbeek |
| author_facet | Thomas Hoelbeek |
| author_sort | Thomas Hoelbeek |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper investigates possible explanations for the sudden diffusion of the French expression à travers, meaning ‘(way) through/across’, from the middle of the 18th century onwards. From that moment, à travers became remarkably more used than the similar expression au travers (de), and also relatively more frequent in comparison with par, ‘through’, a preposition with which it competes in certain contexts. A first hypothesis supposes a competition with par. A second assumption is linked to the end of the freedom of à travers and au travers with respect to the combination with the preposition de. The results indicate that the rise of the frequencies of à travers (de) could, in part, follow from a competition with par for the combination with certain types of Grounds (the reference entity of a spatial relation). The increased level of bondedness – and thus of grammaticalization – of à travers seems also to have contributed to its diffusion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T02:38:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-694a9990b06140aa88e389e065f6de92 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1638-573X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T02:38:34Z |
| publisher | Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Corela |
| spelling | doaj.art-694a9990b06140aa88e389e065f6de922024-02-13T13:51:59ZengCercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICOCorela1638-573X20110.4000/corela.14959The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards.Thomas HoelbeekThis paper investigates possible explanations for the sudden diffusion of the French expression à travers, meaning ‘(way) through/across’, from the middle of the 18th century onwards. From that moment, à travers became remarkably more used than the similar expression au travers (de), and also relatively more frequent in comparison with par, ‘through’, a preposition with which it competes in certain contexts. A first hypothesis supposes a competition with par. A second assumption is linked to the end of the freedom of à travers and au travers with respect to the combination with the preposition de. The results indicate that the rise of the frequencies of à travers (de) could, in part, follow from a competition with par for the combination with certain types of Grounds (the reference entity of a spatial relation). The increased level of bondedness – and thus of grammaticalization – of à travers seems also to have contributed to its diffusion.https://journals.openedition.org/corela/14959grammaticalizationspatial semanticscognitive linguisticsComplex prepositionsdiachronic linguistics |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Hoelbeek The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. Corela grammaticalization spatial semantics cognitive linguistics Complex prepositions diachronic linguistics |
| title | The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. |
| title_full | The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. |
| title_fullStr | The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. |
| title_short | The diffusion of French à travers from the 18th century onwards. |
| title_sort | diffusion of french a travers from the 18th century onwards |
| topic | grammaticalization spatial semantics cognitive linguistics Complex prepositions diachronic linguistics |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/corela/14959 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT thomashoelbeek thediffusionoffrenchatraversfromthe18thcenturyonwards AT thomashoelbeek diffusionoffrenchatraversfromthe18thcenturyonwards |