La tension dans le processus de grammaticalisation: une contribution à la typologie phonétique des langues

This article presents a sketch of a phonetic typology of languages based on phonetic tension, defined and characterised by the Verbo-Tonal System and which constitutes one of the universals of language in view of its biological nature. The research consisted in analysing the minimal tension, i.e. distension, associated by the Verbo-Tonal System with the grammatical component of speech, the iconicity of the manifestations of which between the plane of expression and the plane of content was also highlighted. On the basis of these principles, we have built up a corpus of different manifestations of the grammaticalization process in English, Chinese, Catalan, Spanish, French and Italian as examples of the distension mechanism operating in these languages. From an acoustic point of view, we have parameterised phonetic erosion, which constitutes the phonetic correlate of the desemantisation inherent in the process of grammaticalization, which has enabled us to show certain cross-linguistic common denominators in the transition lexicon à grammar, in particular at the prosodic level, as well as certain particularities in the languages considered in the research (dropping of phonemes in pronunciation, diphthongization, monophthongization) and, finally, the scalarity of the process of grammaticalization and distension at the phonic level. Considered from a didactic perspective, the scalarity of the phonic manifestations of the grammaticalization process makes it possible to characterise the realisations of a language as manifestations of a learning process and to specify their degree of possible deviance.