3 juin 2025
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Simon Gabay et al., « The times are a-changin': présent vs passé simple in French novels (1811-2024) », HAL SHS (Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société), ID : 10670/1.7fbc42...
The use of présent and passé simple in French has undergone profound changes in recent centuries. By means of a large corpus of novels, we observe major trends that we attempt to describe and explain. In our results, we discern the birth of the opposition proposed by H. Weinrich between narration (Erzählung) and discussion (Besprechung), the evolution of which seems to be driven more by literary genres than by the canon.