THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN THE FRENCH LITERARY TEXT

Abstract

This paper examines the study of thematic progression in French text linguistics, with a particular focus on research based on Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP) and carried out on a literary text. The theoretical framework of the Prague School is taken as the starting point, since its principles strongly influenced French linguists who, from the 1970s onwards, developed their own analyses of theme–rheme organization in texts. Special attention is devoted to the contribution of Bernard Combettes, who adopted Daneš’s typology of thematic progression (1974) and adapted it to the French linguistic context and thereby playing a decisive role in the further development of text linguistics in France. The paper first outlines the main features of FSP, then presents a review of French studies from the 1970s to the 1990s, and finally discusses more recent contributions. The conclusion highlights the major achievements of French researchers while pointing to open issues and directions for further research. The findings confirm that French text linguistics owes much to the Prague School tradition but has also developed its own methodological approaches and interpretative models.