The phenomenon of fixation and its application to some cases of spanish and french lexical schemata

Abstract

Our aim in this article is to apply the phenomenon of linguistic fixation to two units, one from Spanish and the other from French, which have a formal similarity: algo me dice que and quelque chose me dit que. On the assumption that both expressions belong to the category of adverbial locutions in charge of marking discourse, we will deal with structures of the type [Adverb + que + P], where P represents the enunciated contents and the adverb ending in the particle que operates as a discourse marker. Because of the form of these two sequences, we will try here in particular to link the phenomenon of linguistic variation with the disciplines of syntax and pragmatics of the languages under study. We will try to elucidate what type of fixation is involved in these expressions; whether it is formal, semantic, pragmatic, or whether it combines all these typologies in a single process of linguistic change. We will conclude that there must be a strong link between the lexical matrices or schemes of a language and the phenomenon of linguistic change and fixation, whether this corresponds to more generalized processes of grammaticalisation or to more specific mechanisms and phases of lexicalisation.