Original research article
January 19, 2026
Open access

Discourse phrasing of emphatic utterances: the French language

A. P. Sedykh
E. N. Akimova
L. A. Mashkova

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify and describe the essential mechanisms for structuring emphatic sentences in French and Francophone discourse within interpersonal rhetorical interactions. In a broader sense, the research’s goal is to identify promising vectors for developing a comprehensive theory of linguacultural proactivity, taking into account the cognitive and communicative data of the national mentality. Achieving this goal requires tracking and documenting the process of emphatic phrasing in discourse to optimally and constructively position the phenomenon of French emotiveness as an object of future research through the prism of historical and modern comparative studies. The scientific novelty of this study lies in updating several aspects of the theme-rhematic approach by enhancing the role of the principle of logicocentricity in the use of thematization and topicalization techniques in the transformation of compositional speech structures. The terminology of discourse studies, as well as the theory of language and communication theory, is also subject to updating and clarification. The key point of this study is the interpretation of the emphatic utterance as a labile and dynamically functioning unit of discourse and narrative of various types, with its own system of semiotic supports and reference points reflecting the emotional and expressive intentions of the speaker. The epistemological model is based on the application of a method for analyzing the semantic density of discourse techniques implemented in the space of emphatic communication. The obtained data opens up additional opportunities for identifying creative mechanisms for the formation of a renewed emphatic narrative, leading to dialogue and constructive synergy between representatives of various sciences and disciplines through the construction and implementation of models of adequate empathic communication associated with the proactive dynamics of synergy between the linguosemiotic and linguacultural parameters of the speech act.

Research materials

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