Etude des Modes dans le Systeme Concessif en Francais du 16e au 20e Siecle et en Espagnol Moderne

This title includes a book & CD. It features text in French. This volume describes the evolution of the mood system in concessive clauses during the period from Renaissance to Modern French based on data taken from huge electronic text corpora. This evolution is described with reference to a recent approach within the framework of grammaticalisation theory including reorganisations of grammatical systems. It is shown that the subjunctive has undergone a process of re-grammaticalisation since its domain has gradually been reduced, formally as well as functionally, in contrast to the indicative whose domain has been extended. This study also questions the general assumption that Romance languages can be considered to form a continuum between conservative and innovative languages by comparing the mood system of Renaissance French with that of Modern Spanish.