La dislocation à gauche rythmée comme dispositif de clôture séquentielle

Abstract

The article focuses on the use of left-dislocation as a syntactic device for closing down a topic or a conversational sequence in French conversation. After a brief discussion of the concept of closing as it is used in conversation analytic research, the paper presents syntactic, lexical and prosodic resources that may occur when a topic and/or a sequence is being closed. It is shown that left-dislocations, which partake in such a closing are often rhythmically structured: this observation leads us to argue that rhythm functions as a contextualization cue signaling an upcoming topical/sequential closing. Moreover, we will compare rhythmical left-dislocations to another recurrent topic closing device, i.e. figurative expressions. The comparison will show different similarities between the two closing devices, with regard to their sequential treatments as well as to their pragmatic effects.