Le marqueur là en français actuel dans l'espace francophone : quelle description lexicographique pour quel(s) usage(s) ?

International audience ; This article analyses the marker LA of pragmatic and deictic value in contemporary French. Based on the observation that a usage as in Le gars, là, qui avait une tuque rouge, là, ben il a sauté du troisième étage is associated with Quebec French by the Antidote dictionary but is also found in a variety as remote as New Caledonian French (BDLP), this article questions the marker’s areal distribution in the French-speaking world at the beginning of the 21th century in order to clarify whether its units constitute shared or independent evolutions: Do they really necessarily vary regionally (that is diatopically) ? The present study uses the comparative panfrancophone method of contemporary variational linguistics in association with the advances of Meaning-Text-Theory (Explanatory and Combinatorial Lexicology) for its semantic and pragmatic analysis. After a synthesis of the representation of LA in dictionaries and specialised articles, followed by results of a recognition test applied to speakers of different French speaking areas, the article considers the place of it’s different units in recent computerised dictionaries. The study confirms the initial hypothesis. It points out that the marker LA belongs to general contemporary French, but adds that certain of its units are mainly of oral usage (diamesic restriction), more frequent mainly overseas (where we also find new units), and also shows diaphasic restriction within Europe. The comparative panfrancophone method therewith shows mainly quantitative differences between Europe and overseas but also a shared basis throughout the French-speaking world, which both merit highlighting in the recent dictionaries analysed in this article. ; Situé dans le domaine de la linguistique variationnelle, cet article analyse le marqueur LÀ à valeur déictique et pragmatique. Il part du constat qu’un emploi de LÀ comme dans Le gars, là, qui avait une tuque rouge, là, ben il a sauté du troisième étage, relevé par le dictionnaire Antidote comme un emploi ...