The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French
In this paper I examine a particular type of morphological negation in French, namely non- prefixation on nominal bases (e.g. non-violence ‘nonviolence’). Drawing on a wide range of authentic examples from the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (TLFi), the French literary database Frantext an...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Vilnius University Press
2014-03-01
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| Series: | Taikomoji kalbotyra |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.journals.vu.lt/taikomojikalbotyra/article/view/17466 |
| _version_ | 1818765150215208960 |
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| author | Edwige Dugas |
| author_facet | Edwige Dugas |
| author_sort | Edwige Dugas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper I examine a particular type of morphological negation in French, namely non- prefixation on nominal bases (e.g. non-violence ‘nonviolence’). Drawing on a wide range of authentic examples from the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (TLFi), the French literary database Frantext and the internet, I show that although the basic meaning of non- prefixation is negation, the nouns prefixed by non- (abbreviated as [non-N]N) may carry an additional nuance, which can be pejorative or euphemistic; hence the hypothesis defended in this paper that the prefix non- can also serve pragmatic purposes.
After having briefly described the morphological and semantic variety of nominal lexemes which can be the input of non- prefixation, I show that [non-N]N can have three different readings, namely what I call the “complementary” interpretation (e.g. les Italiens et les non-Italiens aiment la cuisine italienne ‘Italians and non-Italians like Italian cuisine’), the “ontological” interpretation (e.g. Toute sa vie durant, Gandhi est demeuré convaincu du bien-fondé de la non-violence ‘For all his life, Gandhi was convinced of the legitimacy of nonviolence’), and the “contrary interpretation” (e.g. Les fleurs, je m’en fiche. Serais-je une non-femme? ‘Flowers, I don’t care! Could I be a nonwoman?). In the second section, I describe the pejorative and euphemistic uses of [non-N]N. The pejorative useshave been noticed by several authors (a.o. Gaatone 1971, 1987, Di Sciullo and Tremblay 1993, 1996 for French, Zimmer 1964, Algeo 1971, Bauer 1983, Horn 1989 for English); I show that these uses arise when the [non-N]N have a contrary interpretation and that they are quite frequent. I also emphasize the importance of the discourse context compared to the semantics of the base noun. Then I address the euphemistic uses of [non-N]N, which are linked to the ontological interpretation, and which are more constrained and thus less frequent; I note that these uses function almost as a politeness device. The fourth section provides an attempt to draw a parallel between certain uses of [non-N]N and the polemic and metalinguistic uses of sentential negation, as they have been described by Ducrot (1980, 1984) and Horn (1985, 1989). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T08:13:31Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ce884cc29dee4b97abca0e2e577c08a1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2029-8935 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T08:13:31Z |
| publishDate | 2014-03-01 |
| publisher | Vilnius University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Taikomoji kalbotyra |
| spelling | doaj.art-ce884cc29dee4b97abca0e2e577c08a12022-12-21T21:14:51ZdeuVilnius University PressTaikomoji kalbotyra2029-89352014-03-01410.15388/TK.2014.17466The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in FrenchEdwige Dugas0Université Lille 3 - Charles de Gaulle, FranceIn this paper I examine a particular type of morphological negation in French, namely non- prefixation on nominal bases (e.g. non-violence ‘nonviolence’). Drawing on a wide range of authentic examples from the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (TLFi), the French literary database Frantext and the internet, I show that although the basic meaning of non- prefixation is negation, the nouns prefixed by non- (abbreviated as [non-N]N) may carry an additional nuance, which can be pejorative or euphemistic; hence the hypothesis defended in this paper that the prefix non- can also serve pragmatic purposes. After having briefly described the morphological and semantic variety of nominal lexemes which can be the input of non- prefixation, I show that [non-N]N can have three different readings, namely what I call the “complementary” interpretation (e.g. les Italiens et les non-Italiens aiment la cuisine italienne ‘Italians and non-Italians like Italian cuisine’), the “ontological” interpretation (e.g. Toute sa vie durant, Gandhi est demeuré convaincu du bien-fondé de la non-violence ‘For all his life, Gandhi was convinced of the legitimacy of nonviolence’), and the “contrary interpretation” (e.g. Les fleurs, je m’en fiche. Serais-je une non-femme? ‘Flowers, I don’t care! Could I be a nonwoman?). In the second section, I describe the pejorative and euphemistic uses of [non-N]N. The pejorative useshave been noticed by several authors (a.o. Gaatone 1971, 1987, Di Sciullo and Tremblay 1993, 1996 for French, Zimmer 1964, Algeo 1971, Bauer 1983, Horn 1989 for English); I show that these uses arise when the [non-N]N have a contrary interpretation and that they are quite frequent. I also emphasize the importance of the discourse context compared to the semantics of the base noun. Then I address the euphemistic uses of [non-N]N, which are linked to the ontological interpretation, and which are more constrained and thus less frequent; I note that these uses function almost as a politeness device. The fourth section provides an attempt to draw a parallel between certain uses of [non-N]N and the polemic and metalinguistic uses of sentential negation, as they have been described by Ducrot (1980, 1984) and Horn (1985, 1989).https://www.journals.vu.lt/taikomojikalbotyra/article/view/17466pragmaticsfrançaisnon-morphologynegationsemantics |
| spellingShingle | Edwige Dugas The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French Taikomoji kalbotyra pragmatics français non- morphology negation semantics |
| title | The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French |
| title_full | The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French |
| title_fullStr | The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French |
| title_full_unstemmed | The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French |
| title_short | The pragmatics of morphological negation: pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non- in French |
| title_sort | pragmatics of morphological negation pejorative and euphemistic uses of the prefix non in french |
| topic | pragmatics français non- morphology negation semantics |
| url | https://www.journals.vu.lt/taikomojikalbotyra/article/view/17466 |
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