L’évolution des marqueurs de type si ferai je, non ferai (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle)

Resum

The expressions of the si/non + substitute verb (+ pronominal sub¬ject) type in Medieval French are discourse markers which appear in a dialogue or a monologue to mark agreement and disagreement with something which was previously said. These structures present an argu¬mentative use that oïl and nennil do not have. From Preclassical French (1550) onwards, these structures exclusively mark disagreement. In this paper we describe the evolution of the markers of the type si ferai je, non est il, si a, non fait, etc. in Preclassical and Classical French (from the middle of the 16th century until the end of the 18th). The marker si fait, which is fossilized, can be reduced from Preclassical French onwards to the contradiction particle si of Modern French. Si fait and the reduplicated marker non, non take over the semantic and pragmatic values of the medieval structure which had been disintegrated. Classical drama will use the structures of the oh/ah/eh! que + si/non type that the first variations of si ferai je, non fait, etc. announced at the end of Medieval French.1