This study examines the representation of syntactic variation in Multicultural French in a corpus of 38 “banlieue films”. Many studies have been carried out so far on the lexis and phonology of the “français des banlieues” (termed here Multicultural French) but not on the syntax. According to some linguists (Conein et Gadet, 2000 ; Liogier 2002), this could be due to the fact that “français des banlieues” is not different from traditional “Popular French” in terms of its grammar and syntax. The variationist and pragmatic approaches are used to examine three variables : the use of comment as an exclamative marker instead of more traditional markers (chapter 4), the variation in the use of WH-questions (chapters 5, 6, 7) and the use of qu’est-ce que “what” instead of pourquoi “why” in some types of rhetorical questions used to express a challenge or a criticism (chapters 8, 9). The main results of the study are that: the structure [QkSV] has declined since the 1990s, the [SVQ] structure can be used for rhetorical questions, the qu’est-ce que rhetorical question expresses a strong face threatening act and is more direct than a rhetorical question in pourquoi which can be ambiguous. The representation of Multicultural French spoken in these films shows an increase in the use of some syntactic features compared to traditional Popular French. However, this observation cannot allow us to claim that they are two distinct varieties in terms of their syntax.

This study examines the response of Generation Z females in Sweden to fast fashion web advertisements incorporating six linguistic persuasion strategies. The aim is to identify which of these strategies can be effectively employed in this context to persuade the targeted demographic. An online survey consisting of twelve fast fashion web advertisements was distributed over the social media platforms Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The respondents' objective was to choose a preferred advertisement from two options, one featuring a linguistic strategy of persuasion and another where the linguistic strategy had been changed or removed, while the respondents had to consider questions related to the linguistic strategies’ persuasive aims. The result from 44 target respondents revealed that the strategies of reader pronouns, directives, and the subject position effectively reached their persuasive aims, while the results for boosters, rhetorical questions, and engagement markers were inconclusive. Still, open-ended non-mandatory answers indicated that the three strategies that got inconclusive results also received negative reactions from the demographic and therefore likely failed at their persuasive aims.

This thesis investigates the COULD X BE MORE Y phrase (CXBMY), well-known from the television show Friends, to argue for its qualification as a construction. By analyzing the phrase’s formal and functional features, as well as its frequency in the COCA corpus, this thesis compares the findings to the definition of constructions by Goldberg (2006, p. 5). The results prove the hypothesis that CXBMY is a construction since the form-function interrelation conveys its meaning; the form of a yes-no question and emphasis on the main auxiliary is understood based on its function as a rhetorical question and potential parody of the Friends character Chandler, and vice versa. The linguistic information of CXBMY – syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and information packaging – all contribute to describe the meaning of CXBMY, while simultaneously needing one another to create a complete understanding of CXBMY. Consequently, CXBMY has a non-predictability that requires us to store it in a mental constructicon. While CXBMY shows links to other known constructions, such as the SUBJECT AUXILIARY INVERSION CONSTRUCTION and INFORMATION PACKAGING CONSTRUCTION, its specific interrelation between form and function distinguishes CXBMY from other known constructions. Thus, this thesis reaches the conclusion that CXBMY is a construction. Additionally, since the inferential pragmatic function, intonation and information structure of CXBMY is crucial to understand its meaning, this thesis highlights the prominence of these linguistic aspects within Construction Grammar, which have so far been sparsely researched (Leino, 2013; Gras & Elvira-García, 2021; Finkbeiner, 2019).