Cette thèse a pour objectif de mettre en évidence le caractère original des langues française (hypotactique) et chinoise (paratactique) et la raison profonde des différences entre elles. Relevant de la linguistique contrastive, plutôt théorique, cette étude porte sur les comparaisons sous trois aspects. En premier lieu, les comparaisons diachroniques générales du français et du chinois nous permet de mieux comprendre les filiations entre le latin et le français, entre le chinois archaïque et le chinois contemporain. En deuxième lieu, afin de montrer leur caractère original – hypotactique en latin et en français, paratactique en chinois archaïque et contemporain, les comparaisons sont effectuées entre le français et le chinois, ainsi qu’entre leurs origines immédiates – le latin et le chinois archaïque – sous trois aspects syntaxiques : l’ordre des mots, la correspondance entre les classes de mots et les fonctions syntaxiques dans la phrase simple et le rapport entre les propositions structurant la phrase complexe. Finalement, la comparaison des réflexions philosophiques sur le langage entre l’Antiquité grecque et l’Antiquité chinoise et la présentation de la divergence culturelle entre l’individualité et la globalité, en montrant les originalités intellectuelles occidentale et chinoise, nous permet de détecter dans une perspective philosophique et culturelle la raison profonde de leurs caractères originaux divergents. / This thesis aims to highlight the originality of French (hypotactic) and Chinese (paratactic) languages and the reasons of their differences. Falling within contrastive linguistics mostly theoretical, this study focuses on the comparisons with regard to three aspects. Firstly, the general diachronic comparisons of French and Chinese allow us to better understand the affiliations between Latin and French, between archaic Chinese and contemporary Chinese. Secondly, to show their original character – hypotactic in Latin and French, paratactic in contemporary and archaic Chinese, the comparisons are implemented between French and Chinese, and between their origins, Latin and archaic Chinese, on three syntactic aspects: the word order, the correspondence between word classes and syntactic functions in the simple sentence and the ratio of proposals in the complex sentence. Finally, the comparison of philosophical reflections on language between the Greek antiquity and the Chinese antiquity, and the presentation of cultural divergence between individuality and global nature showing the Western and Chinese intellectual originality, allow us to detect from a philosophical and cultural perspective the underlying reason for their different original characters.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-01-12T11:38:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2950569 bytes, checksum: fdcb47c13d14f4ee0af9b2223a6ea351 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-12T11:38:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2950569 bytes, checksum: fdcb47c13d14f4ee0af9b2223a6ea351 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-31 / This thesis analyzes the function of two grammatical forms which bring about the articulation of sentences through adverbial hypotaxis, a mechanism of textual connection characterized by the establishment of semantic-logical relationships, signaling the communicative intentions of the users of the language. These grammatical forms – sem(without) and the conjunctional periphrase semque (unless) - are placed in distinct grammatical classes: preposition and conjunction respectively, due to grammatical conventions. These conventions attribute to the first term, the function of transposing a nominal syntagm into an adnominal or adverbial adjunct within the sentence; and to the second, that of transposing an absolute sentence to a new structure, within which it occupies the position of a constituent, taking up, among other functions, that of the adverbial adjunct, under the form of a sentence. In this perspective, I address the syntactical and semantic re-categorization of the above mentioned preposition, defending the view that it figures as a conjunction not only when it is part of the conjunctional periphrase, but also in in the presence of the verb in the infinitive form, forming reduced infinitive sentences. Using Functional Theory, which analyzes the principles which govern the natural use of language, I discuss the cognitive and interactional motivations which cause the change.With specific reference to the treatment of the process of grammaticalization, I have used the North American branch of Functionalism to explain the fluctuation of category and semantic and discursive fluctuations experienced by this linguistic item. From the observation of data, I have deduced patterns of typical uses of reduced as well as highly evolved sentence structures, emphasizing that these two structures are not always interchangeable. The corpus from which I inventorythe syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of the transpositers under investigation, correlating textual and interpersonal functions, is constituted by texts from the argumentative sphere- articles of opinion, editorials and interviews from weekly magazines. I conclude that though the preposition sem does not introduce argumentative terms, it belongs to the listof prepositions which are moderately grammaticalized, and is susceptible to change, exhibiting a diversity of semantic nuances similar to conjunctions. / Esta tese analisa a função de duas formas gramaticais que promovem a articulação oracional via hipotaxe adverbial, mecanismo de conexão textual caracterizado por estabelecer relações lógico-semânticas, sinalizando as intenções comunicativas dos usuários da língua. Essas formas gramaticais – sem e a perífrase conjuntiva sem que – estão acomodadas em classes gramaticais distintas: preposição e conjunção respectivamente, devido a convenções da gramática, que atribui à primeira a função de transpor um sintagma nominal a adjunto adnominal ou adverbial, no nível da oração; e à segunda, de transpor uma oração absoluta para uma nova estrutura no interior da qual ocupa o lugar de constituinte, assumindo, dentre outras funções, a de adjunto adverbial, sob a forma de oração. Nessa perspectiva, abordo a recategorização sintática e semântica da preposição citada, defendendo que esta se configura como conjunção não só quando integra a perífrase conjuntiva, mas diante de verbo na forma infinitiva, formando orações reduzidas de infinitivo. Tomando como suporte a Teoria Funcionalista, que analisa os princípios que governam o uso natural da língua, discuto as motivações cognitivas e interacionais que pressionam a mudança; particularmente quando do tratamento do processo de gramaticalização, recorro à vertente do Funcionalismo Norte-americano, para explicar a flutuação categorial e semântico-discursiva experimentada por esse item linguístico. Da observação dos dados, depreendo padrões de uso típicos da estrutura oracional reduzida e da desenvolvida, ressalvando-se que nem sempre as duas estruturas são intercambiáveis. O corpus a partir do qual inventario as propriedades sintáticas e semântico-pragmáticas dos transpositores sob investigação, correlacionando às funções textual e interpessoal, constitui-se de textos da esfera argumentativa – artigos de opinião, editoriais e entrevistas de periódicos semanais. Concluo que, embora a preposição sem não introduza termos argumentais, daí integrar o rol das preposições medianamente gramaticalizadas, é suscetível à mudança, exibindo uma diversidade de matizes semânticos à semelhança das conjunções.

L’enjeu de la thèse est de résoudre et d’expliquer les problèmes liés au passage des structures textuelles anglaises polysyndétiques ou « parataxiques » à des structures plus majoritairement hypotaxiques dans les traductions françaises correspondantes. Pour ce faire, nous avons commencé par comparer des corpus de traductions multiples (même texte anglophone traduit à de multiples reprises, par des traducteurs différents) afin de dégager des « tendances générales » potentiellement systématisables. Partant de ces observations, et après avoir redéfini la notion de « polysyndète » dans une perspective tant étymologique / historique que littéraire, stylistique et linguistique, nous avons souhaité mettre nos diverses hypothèses à l’épreuve d’un nouveau corpus de textes sélectionnés en vertu de leur caractère ostensiblement polysyndétique, et vérifier en cela que le nœud du problème est bel et bien l’emploi fonctionnel divergent de la coordination entre les deux langues, dû à un rattachement à deux réalités énonciatives complexes et idiomatiques qui, tout en donnant l’illusion de se correspondre, ne sont pas équivalentes dans un nombre non négligeable de cas. La polysyndète, fréquemment décrite comme une figure de style, doit être plutôt considérée en anglais comme une figure de syntaxe, héritée d’une longue tradition allant de l’Ancien Testament aux premiers textes chrétiens, jusqu’aux pièces de William Shakespeare et aux romans d’Ernest Hemingway. Néanmoins, en moyenne, le français utilise jusqu’à deux fois moins la coordination que l’anglais, où la polysyndète semble représenter 4% des mots totaux dans les textes de nos corpus. En effet, le français « lie » les éléments de ses phrases par d’autres moyens, lesquels sont représentés en majorité par : l’effacement simple de tout coordonnant (combiné ou pas à l’usage de ponctèmes), les périphrases coordinatives, et la subordination (verbale ou adverbiale). Nous avons ainsi mis au jour une série de tendances générales de traduction, dans le cadre d’une théorie explicative ; puis la dernière partie de la thèse a consisté à les « valider » de manière expérimentale, par le biais d’une expérience de nature pionnière. Ce qui nous a conduit à tenter de dresser quelques règles pratiques pour la traduction automatique de la polysyndète. / The aim of this doctoral dissertation was to solve and explain a set of problems related to the translation of ‘polysyndetic’ structures within texts originally written in English into more frequently ‘hypotactic’ structures in French. To do so, I started by comparing multiple text corpora composed of original English texts, and followed by their French translations (produced by several translators), so as to point out a few ‘general tendencies’ which I expected to be potentially systematizable. Starting from these empirical data, and after redefining the notion of ‘polysyndeton’ from an etymological / historical as well as literary, stylistic and linguistic point of view, I then endeavoured to check the validity of my different hypotheses using a series of texts that had been selected for their plainly polysyndetic character. This was to verify that the crux of the problem lay, indeed, in a certain form of enunciative divergence between the two languages in their use of coordination – this very divergence being the reflection of two different psycho-linguistic realities which, although giving the illusion of being symmetrical, fail to be perfect equivalents in a large number of cases. Polysyndeton – a figure that is often described as a ‘figure of speech’, coming all the way down from an age-old tradition starting with The Old Testament, then passed on through the first Christian texts and followed by William Shakespeare’s plays, and eventually by Ernest Hemingway’s novels – should rather be described as a ‘figure of syntax’ in English. Nevertheless, the French language – contrary to the English language in which coordination stands for 4% of total words in a text – uses coordinated structures amounting to only 1. 5 to 2% of its global lexical items. Indeed, the French language “ties up” sentence elements by other means than mere coordination, especially the following: simple neutralisation of the coordinating device (whether or not coupled with the use of a punctuation sign), coordinative periphrases, and subordination (whether verbal or adverbial). I have thus worked towards highlighting a series of general translational tendencies, as part of an explanatory theory of polysyndeton. In the last part of my dissertation, I attempted to validate these rules by way of an original experimental test – which led me to put forward a short list of practical rules for automatized translation.