À quoi sert le connecteur mais dans le courrier des lecteurs?
What is the purpose of the connective mais in readers’ letters to the press?

Author(s): Anna Kieliszczyk
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: readers’ letters; connective; argumentation; opposition; opinion
Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to show the role of the connective mais (but) in the press column Readers’ letters. In this type of text, the references to previously published pieces serve as a background to show opinions of the author. Yet for conventional reasons this opposition is frequently expressed using the less categorical argumentative scheme: “Admittedly P but Q”. Our text corpus contains about 100 examples excerpted from the Readers’ letters press columns from different French and Swiss newspapers and magazines (including Tribune de Genève, L’Hebdo, La Recherche, Que choisir, L’Express, Femme actuelle, Causette).

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