Mais oui, il était un joli temps du passé comme les autres, le petit imparfait hypocoristique

Abstract

Jacques Bres : The French Imparfait hypocoristic: a past tense like all the others How can we account for the imperfect tense used as an hypocoristic expression? The usual explanations, following different lines of reasoning, do not regard it as a past tense and ascribe to it meanings that are in fact generated by contextual parameters. I propose that the imperfect tense invariably conveys the same aspectual and temporal values, whether used hypocoristically or otherwise. My demonstration reaches the conclusion that the hypocoristic meaning is actually a result of the interaction between these values and contextual parameters.