Les adjectifs référentiels déictiques français actuel et présent

In this paper, we present the results of a corpus-based synchronic study of the formal and semantic functioning of the French speech-act related referential adjectives actuel and présent. By analyzing different parameters, such as semantic use, position, gradability, coordination and lexicalization, we are able to distinguish between different polysemy and homonymy phenomena related to actuel and présent, to study more in detail their interchangeability capacities for their temporal uses and to show that, with respect to a prototype-based delineation, présent, and in a lesser way actuel, deviate on certain criteria and can be considered as less representative of the speech-act related referential adjective class in French.