This paper focuses on the French adverb autrement from a pragmasemantic point of view.The main purpose of this study is to show that autrement has several meanings. Even thoughit belongs to French – ment adverbs, it also works as a connective when combining twosentences, or two cotexts p and q. After classifying some of its attested uses, especially onsyntactic grounds, the study puts the emphasis on its pragmatic function in French oraldiscourse. The main claim here is that autrement obviously rests upon a negative statementwhile connecting semantic entities : p autrement q introduces a logical implication between pand q, whose approximate meaning is : “Il you don’t want to have q, than you have to do p”.In other words, p and q are closely related by means of a contradictory relation.

Autrement serves as a multifunctional connective in French oral discourse, linking two sentences or cotexts, introducing logical implication between them and establishing a contradictory relation between them.

Autrement : un connecteur autrement polyfonctionnel

Key Takeaway: Autrement serves as a multifunctional connective in French oral discourse, linking two sentences or cotexts, introducing logical implication between them and establishing a contradictory relation between them.