Meaning and significance of punctuation marks in French language in the context of text

Abstract

The study aims primarily defining the importance of punctuation marks in French language and their role and functions. These punctuation marks have fundamental and essential role in understanding the message the writer wants to transmit to the reader. Secondly, the study focuses on the semantic role played by these marks in understanding and interpreting of the enunciative context where the discourse is produced. To realize his objective, the researcher has adopted the analytical and descriptive approach to define punctuation marks and present their role and functions. The researcher has also presented the theoretical framework through definition of concepts and terms on which the study is based. All the above mentioned items have been included in chapter I and II of the research. Concerning chapter 111, it has been dedicated to the analysis of three different texts including punctuation marks with semantic and enunciative functions. The researcher has chosen a literary text written by the French writer Maupassant, a journalistic text edited by Anne Guingé from the newspaper ‘’Le Figaro’’, a translated literary text of the same writer Maupassant to the Arabic language. 5 The researcher has analyzed the way in which the translator has transferred significance of the punctuation marks from the original text to the translated text