Le mari de Jill Biden l’a emporté sur le mari de Melania : la construction référentielle dans la presse people sur Internet

This paper is devoted to a singular use of definite descriptions in the online tabloids. Many definite descriptions, such as Jill Biden's husband to designate Joe Biden and Melania's husband to designate Donald Trump, appear unrelated to the subject matter of the articles, and sometimes in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mathilde Salles
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cercle linguistique du Centre et de l'Ouest - CerLICO 2021-12-01
Series:Corela
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/corela/13344
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Summary:This paper is devoted to a singular use of definite descriptions in the online tabloids. Many definite descriptions, such as Jill Biden's husband to designate Joe Biden and Melania's husband to designate Donald Trump, appear unrelated to the subject matter of the articles, and sometimes in contexts where a personal pronoun would be more appropriate than a nominal expression. We first point out how much these definite descriptions deviate from the ordinary uses of highly specified referring expressions in general and definite descriptions in particular and what risks some of them, falling within the category of Milner's “presuppositional anaphors”, may present for the good referential interpretation. Finally, we specify their function, a function linked both to the essence of tabloids and to the digital medium of this type of press.
ISSN:1638-573X