Discourse Markers and Metalinguistic Function: About c'est vite dit and (que) se dice pronto

Abstract

This study is essentially focused on the contemporary marker c’est vite dit, in modern French, and is intended as a contrastive study with the Spanish item (que) se dice pronto. Beyond a formal similarity and several other points of convergence, these markers diverge in their degree of idiomaticization and in the variations in their range of meanings.  Our purpose is to show that c’est vite dit and (que) se dice pronto have to be analyzed in terms of metalinguistic comment on the level of argumentative discourse. They serve different strategies: c’est vite dit implies a contrary argumentative orientation while (que) se dice pronto signals a readjustment of argumentative force. The study is based on various criteria, both distributional and pragma-semantic, which bring out the different discursive strategies attached to each marker.