Être dans tous ses états

This paper is concerned with the conceptual variation in the use of the French verb être ‘be’. Drawing on Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and Fauconnier’s theory of mental spaces, it is shown that the internal structure of être is far from being uniform in natural language definitions. The analysis of...

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Main Author: Paul Sambre
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive 2015-06-01
Series:CogniTextes
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes/120
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author Paul Sambre
author_facet Paul Sambre
author_sort Paul Sambre
collection DOAJ
description This paper is concerned with the conceptual variation in the use of the French verb être ‘be’. Drawing on Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and Fauconnier’s theory of mental spaces, it is shown that the internal structure of être is far from being uniform in natural language definitions. The analysis of the first definition of Internet in ten Dutch- and French-speaking non-IT Belgian magazines reveals the existence of four variants of être, themselves refined into several other sub-variants. It is demonstrated that the verb être, encoding an equivalence relation, is not the only element involved in definitions. On this conceptually empty verb at first sight, non-verbal supplements are frequently attached that conceptually enrich this relation and contribute to the conceptual structure of definitions.
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spelling doaj.art-f5a6eea0337c46038d7500982d0a5f462022-12-21T20:36:50ZengAssociation Française de Linguistique CognitiveCogniTextes1958-53222015-06-01110.4000/cognitextes.120Être dans tous ses étatsPaul SambreThis paper is concerned with the conceptual variation in the use of the French verb être ‘be’. Drawing on Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar and Fauconnier’s theory of mental spaces, it is shown that the internal structure of être is far from being uniform in natural language definitions. The analysis of the first definition of Internet in ten Dutch- and French-speaking non-IT Belgian magazines reveals the existence of four variants of être, themselves refined into several other sub-variants. It is demonstrated that the verb être, encoding an equivalence relation, is not the only element involved in definitions. On this conceptually empty verb at first sight, non-verbal supplements are frequently attached that conceptually enrich this relation and contribute to the conceptual structure of definitions.http://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes/120grammaticalizationdrohencognitive grammarlanguage psychomechanicsnumberêtre
spellingShingle Paul Sambre
Être dans tous ses états
CogniTextes
grammaticalization
drohen
cognitive grammar
language psychomechanics
number
être
title Être dans tous ses états
title_full Être dans tous ses états
title_fullStr Être dans tous ses états
title_full_unstemmed Être dans tous ses états
title_short Être dans tous ses états
title_sort etre dans tous ses etats
topic grammaticalization
drohen
cognitive grammar
language psychomechanics
number
être
url http://journals.openedition.org/cognitextes/120
work_keys_str_mv AT paulsambre etredanstoussesetats