The present thesis consists of an introduction and the following papers: The aspect-evidentiality system of Middle Mongol. Ural-Altaic Studies, 13. (forthcoming) The tense-aspect system of Khorchin Mongolian. In: Pirkko Suihkonen &amp; Lindsay Whaley (eds.), Typology of Languages of Europe and Northern and Central Asia. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (forthcoming) Aspect and epistemic notions in the present tense system of Khalkha Mongolian. Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. (forthcoming) Factual vs. evidential? - The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian. In: Ad Foolen, Helen de Hoop, &amp; Gijs Mulder (eds.), Empirical Approaches to Evidentiality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (under review) Its purpose is to give an account of tense, aspect and evidentiality in three Mongolian varieties: Middle Mongol (MM) as spoken in the Mongol Empire, Khalkha Mongolian as spoken in the Mongolian state, and Khorchin Mongolian as spoken in eastern Inner Mongolia, China. MM started out with a tripartite tense distinction and a medium-sized aspectual system. Its past evidential system was tripartite with suffixes for firsthand, non-firsthand and evidentially neutral information. In Khorchin, which developed under the influence of Mandarin and Manchu, evidentiality was lost, and tense was simplified into a past / non-past distinction, alongside with a discontinuous proximal future / past marker. The aspect system underwent some changes, but retained its complexity. Khalkha, which developed under the influence of Turkic and Tibetan, underwent some shared innovations with Khorchin, but retained participles as a multifunctional unit within finite predicates, so that its aspectual system grew more complex. The past evidentiality distinctions of MM were basically retained, but the introduction of present tense evidentiality brought a number of changes: the evidentially neutral value shifted to signaling assimilated knowledge, and discontinuous future uses were introduced for all past markers. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 2: Accepted. Paper 3: Accepted. Paper 4: Submitted.</p><p> </p>

Toute langue parlée dans le monde évolue selon des mécanismes internes et externes qui lui sont propres. Notre travail s’intéresse aux facteurs de ces mécanismes, en particulier aux effets du contact des langues entre elles. Des chercheurs ont mis en évidence les effets de ces interactions et ont montré que toutes sortes d’éléments linguistiques pouvaient être transférées d’une langue à une autre. La famille des langues altaïques est représentée en Chine par des langues des trois principales branches (toungouso-mandchoue, mongole, turque), qui ont été en contact à divers degrés avec le chinois. Dans ce travail, nous étudierons le khortchin (qorcin, ch. keerqin), dialecte mongol oriental qui a été en contact avec le chinois de façon importante dans le temps et l’espace. Des linguistes de Mongolie-Intérieure ont souligné des phénomènes de « mixité linguistique » dans le khortchin, révélant un nombre considérable de mots d'emprunt chinois. Ce travail tente de montrer, à travers une description phonologique, morphologique et syntaxique, les caractéristiques linguistiques propres à ce dialecte. Pour comprendre les mécanismes à l’œuvre et identifier les facteurs internes et/ou externes, cette description est étayée par une comparaison entre le khortchin et d’autres dialectes mongols, notamment l’oïrate. Cette recherche s’est inscrite dans la problématique du projet ANR dirigé par M. R. Djamouri «Contacts de langues et changements linguistiques : le cas du chinois et des langues altaïques », et celui dirigé par Mme Dan Xu, « Do languages and genes correlate? A case study in Northwestern China ». / Any language in the world evolves according to internal and external mechanisms which are specific to each language. Our work focuses on these factors, and particularly on the effects of contact between different languages. Researchers have highlighted these linguistic interactions and showed that all kinds of linguistic elements can be transferred from one language to another. The Altaic language family in China includes languages of the three main branches (Tungus-Manchu, Mongolian, and Turk), which have been more or less in contact with Chinese. In this work, we study Khorchin (qorcin, ch. keerqin), an Eastern Mongolian dialect that has been in contact with Chinese significantly in time and space. Linguists from Inner Mongolia have noted the phenomena of " language mixing" in Khorchin, revealing a considerable amount of loan words from Chinese. This work attempts to show, through a phonological, morphological and syntactic description, some linguistic phenomena that are specific to this dialect. To understand the mechanisms involved and identify internal and / or external factors, this description relies on a comparison between the Khorchin and other Mongolian dialects, and in particular Oirat. This research is related to the NRA projects led by R. Djamouri "Language contact and language change: the case of Chinese and Altaic languages", and by Ms. Dan Xu, "Do languages and genes correlate? - A case study in Northwestern China ".