Evolution of the marker comme qui dirait

What is it about?

The aim of this paper is the evolution of the discourse marker comme qui dirait from old French to contemporary French. At the beginning, the marker has the sense of a hypothetical comparative si comme l’en diroit / comme + qui + diroit meaning comme si l’on disait. In a second stage, the marker becomes a reformulative marker meaning c'est-à-dire. Finally, in a third stage, it becomes a polyphonic attenuator marker.

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