Frz. quoi als Diskursmarker

Abstract

This contribution deals with the different uses of French quoi as a discourse marker. These uses are described in such a way that it will become clear why in certain circumstances the use of quoi, as pointed out in the recent literature (cf. Beeching 2006), counts as polite. It will, however, also become clear why, in other circumstances, its use is considered downright impolite. The second aspect of quoi that is discussed in this article concerns its still ill-understood use to mark the closure of a problematic (i.e. unsmooth, disfluent) formulation. It will be argued that Chafe's (1994) and Langacker's (2001) notion of attentional framing provides a useful basis for a more complete understanding of this type of use.