En effet in contemporary French: from confirmation to justification/explanation

In this paper, we analyse the French adverbial en effet ("indeed"), with a corpus study. We distinguish between three main uses, and focus on their essential semantics and functional characteristics. In these uses, en effet can (1) confirm a previous statement, (2) confirm an expected fact or (3) justify or explain a previous utterance. These three uses, as we show with the help of examples taken from the corpus, are linked to different contexts: the first one is absolute and dialogic, the second one is found in dialogal or heterogeneous sequences; finally, the third one is rather non dialogic. These uses of en effet are closely interrelated: they are all based on an operation of confirmation, which seems to find its most basic or primitive form in uses of type (1), where en effet confirms a previous statement.