Le rôle discursif des locutions à valeur gérondivale ce disant et ce faisant : des propriétés circonstancielles aux propriétés axiologiques

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a reflection on the French gerund phrases ce disant / ce faisant. Our aim is to show how this gerund expression (neutral pronoun CE + non finite verb form) constitutes a privileged marker of informational continuity in discourse sequences. We will also identify the antecedent of the demonstrative pronoun CE in the left context. The corpus reveals that the role of these expressions is comparable to that of framing adverbs. They set a framework within which the matrix clause is interpreted. We will see that this semantic value is generated both by the thematic nature of such expressions and the syntactic dislocation in their host sentences.

Keywords

• gerund
• textual cohesion
• coherence
• resumptive anaphora
• ce disant
• ce faisant