New observations on the grammaticalisation path of <i>où est-ce que</i> in Quebec French

Abstract This article provides new observations on où est-ce que (lit. ‘where is-it that’) in headed relatives (i.e. relatives with a nominal antecedent) in Quebec French from two different data sources (corpus research and acceptability judgements). These observations will be interpreted as an indicator for a more advanced stage of grammaticalisation of où est-ce que in this variety of French than in its European counterpart. Moreover, it will be shown that où est-ce que is more advanced in grammaticalisation in Quebec French than qu’est-ce que (lit. ‘what is-it that’). I will argue that this contrast is due to the adverbial function of où est-ce que , which leads to structural ambiguity between appositive and restrictive relative clauses. This ambiguity creates the possibility of structural reanalysis of clauses beginning with où est-ce que as headed relative clauses. I will support this analysis diachronically by comparison with other languages and with a related form oùsque , which is diachronically related to où est-ce que and has a distribution similar to that of où est-ce que , in that it is also used in headed relatives. The article is structured as follows. In Section 1 , I will describe the distribution of où est-ce que and related forms in French both synchronically and diachronically and present the steps of grammaticalisation that have been undergone by où est-ce que . In Section 2 , I present new data from Quebec French that will show a more advanced stage of grammaticalisation of où est-ce que in Quebec French. In Section 3 , I suggest an informal analysis to explain this new observation. Section 4 provides a detailed analysis of the informal suggestion based on a formal distinction between restrictive and appositive uses of relative clauses. Section 5 offers a summary and discussion.