Upgrading and Downgrading: the Cases of Or even and Or at least
Blandine Pennec · 2018
The term upgrading is not a very frequent metaterm, but is used nonetheless, and particularly in the expression “enunciative upgrading”. This chapter examines upgrading processes introduced by the sequence or even. Whether the studied object is the sequence or even or or at least, each time the readjustment is announced completely explicitly and not ambiguously, given that the nature of the readjustment is clarified. The chapter also examines the forms of downgrading, meaning the constructions in which an enunciative segment ES2 says less than an ES1 preceding it. The sequences or even and or at least both fall in the domain of post-modifying the enunciator's own discourse. The chapter explores what is the modus operandi of these sequences exactly is, and what is the role played by the different markers. It also explores the interpretative mechanisms in more detail.