4. To Cause vs. Causer :
a) To cause (langue générale)
Ainsi, nous arrivons à notre dernier mot
sélectionné pour l?étude. Suite aux constatations de
Stubbs (1995)36, qui montrent que le verbe anglais « to cause "
a une prosodie sémantique très négative, nous allons,
à notre tour, examiner ce verbe dans le BNC. Avant toute chose, nous
avons interrogé l?outil « collocates ", pour avoir une idée
globale sur les cooccurrences les plus fréquentes de ce mot. Ainsi, le
résultat a révélé que « to cause " a bien une
prosodie sémantique très négative, puisque sur ses 10
collocations les plus fréquentes, nous avons obtenus 7 qui soient des
mots à connotation négative, tels que : problems, damage,
death, concern, trouble, harm, injury
Figure 13 : les collocations les plus fréquentes
de « to cause » dans le BNC
|
Rank
|
|
|
|
|
TOT
|
|
ALL
|
%
|
|
|
1
|
|
|
PROBLEMS
|
882
|
|
27186
|
3.24
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
DAMAGE
|
746
|
|
8301
|
8.99
|
|
|
|
3
|
|
|
DEATH
|
|
691
|
|
19891
|
3.47
|
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
CONCERN
|
489
|
|
10265
|
4.76
|
|
|
|
5
|
|
|
TROUBLE
|
321
|
|
8833
|
3.63
|
|
|
|
6
|
|
|
HARM
|
|
306
|
|
2885
|
10.6
1
|
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
INJURY
|
|
198
|
|
4604
|
4.30
|
|
|
Nous avons ensuite analysé ce verbe qui a pour sens
« make something (especially something bad) happen
"37, et ses différentes formes conjuguées (cause,
causes, caused, causing). D?ailleurs, cette définition dans «
Oxford dictionnary " implique déjà que ce mot a une connotation
négative.
36 Voir page 36
37 Selon Oxford dictionary
De ce fait, nous avons obtenu 30026 concordances. Un chiffre
énorme, mais nous constatons très rapidement que non seulement ce
verbe a effectivement une prosodie sémantique négative, mais
aussi que les collocations négatives de << to cause » sont
beaucoup plus fréquentes et beaucoup plus sévères que son
quasi-synonyme << to lead to ». En effet, ce verbe entre très
souvent en cooccurrence avec des mots tels que : difficulties, irritation,
damage, harm, poverty, a loss, crash, cancer, serious
injury, etc, comme nous pouvons le voir à travers les
contextes suivants :
Négatifs :
The House of Lords upheld D's conviction for murder: an
intent to cause really serious injury is sufficient for
murder, without any proof that the defendant intended, or even contemplated,
the possibility that death would result.
How could one river cause so much damage
and threaten the livelihoods of so many farmers and landowners?
A panel of medical and scientific experts based them on how
likely it was that cancer had been caused by the
victim's working conditions
Police were last night hunting a " maniac " driver who is
said to have caused a crash which killed five
people, including two young children
A tumour or trauma in one side of the brain
causes a loss in the field of vision on the other
side
The reason this has occurred is because of a poverty
amongst rich countries rich people which is causing
poverty amongst poor people which is material.
A popular modern interpretation of liberal ideas argues that
private autonomy should be lost not through a special exercise of choice but
rather through causing harm, or the risk of
causing harm, to others
If the base drive of the switching transistor was suddenly
removed a large induced voltage would appear between the transistor collector
and emitter, causing permanent damage to the drive
circuit.
The Council takes the view that although late submissions
impose problems upon the Council officers and members, more importantly
they cause difficulties within the bodies themselves in
respect of budgeting and cash flow Further, the salesperson who does not
respect the fact that the buyer is likely to be a busy person, with many
demands on his time, may cause irritation on the part
of the buyer.
Quant aux occurrences positives, elles sont quasi-absentes. A
titre d?exemple :
Business is blooming for the Porters IN 1802 a giant
dahlia (D. coccinea), which grew six foot tall and had yellow, orange, scarlet
and maroon flowers, was introduced from South America and caused
a sensation
For weeks after the biggest blasts recorded this century the
cloud caused spectacular sunsets in Australia
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