Regrammation and paradigmatization: Diachronic analysis of a number of progressive periphrases in French

In the present article, our purpose is to characterize each of the periphrases expressing progressivity Pierre est / va / s’en va / vient / s’en vient chantant, Pierre est à / après chanter, Pierre est en train de chanter as members of a progressive paradigm, and to provide arguments in favour of including the so-called deictic relative construction ( Je vois) Pierre qui chante in this paradigm. Our arguments comprise diachronic, diastratic, Francophone, and Creole evidence. In Kragh and Schøsler (2014), we have examined in detail this construction, focusing on the grammaticalization process and, in particular, on the reanalysis and actualization process. We here propose an analysis of the deictic relative as yet another way of expressing progressivity. If our analysis is correct, the deictic relative should be considered as a member of the French tense, aspect, and mode (TAM) paradigm.