A propos from verbal complement to discourse marker: a case of grammaticalization?

This paper presents an analysis of the evolution of the French preverbal expression 'a propos' ('by the way' in Modern French). First I discuss the possibility of analyzing it as a discourse marker. Basing the analysis on Fraser's approach (1990, 1999), I show that 'a propos' falls within the definition of discourse markers, displaying their main characteristics. More specifically it serves to reinforce, or even create, discourse coherence. Secondly I give an account of the historical development of the expression and of the emergence of its pragmatic uses. I argue that it is closely related to the evolution of 'a ce propos' (and to a lesser extent to that of 'a propos de'), and hypothesize that a propos has progressively replaced 'a ce propos' in certain contexts, while also developing in contexts of more abrupt discourse shift. I finally address the issue of the interpretation of 'a propos' as a case of grammaticalization, and show that there are sufficiently convincing arguments to justify its being analyzed as such. I also discuss the relevance of introducing the notion of pragmaticalization, and argue for this being a mere subclass of grammaticalization, though pertaining more specifically to the pragmatic area.