AGRÉGATION EXTERNE
SESSION 1998
VERSION ASSORTIE D'UNE ANALYSE LINGUISTIQUE EN FRANÇAIS
Durée : 7 heures
La version et l'analyse linguistique devront être composées sur des copies séparées
VERSION
Twenty‑five minutes brought us to the Bryson Tower, a white stucco palace with fretted lanterns in the forecourt and tall date‑palms. The entrance was in an L, up marble steps, through a Moorish archway, and over a lobby that was too big and a carpet that was too blue. Blue Ali Baba oil jars were dotted around, big enough to keep tigers in. There was a desk and a night clerk with one of those moustaches that get stuck under your finger‑nail.
Degarmo lunged past the desk towards an open elevator beside which a tired old man sat on a stool waiting for a customer. The clerk snapped at Degarmo's back like a terrier.
'One moment, please. Whom did you wish to see?'
Degarmo spun on his heel and looked at me wonderingly. 'Did he say "whom"?'
'Yeah, but don't hit him,' I said. 'There is such a word.'
Degarmo licked his lips. 'I knew there was,' he said. 'I often wondered where they kept it. Look, buddy,' he said to the clerk, 'we want up seven‑sixteen. Any objections?'
'Certainly I have,' the clerk said coldly. 'We don't announce guests at' ‑‑ he lifted his arm and turned it neatly to look at the narrow oblong watch on the inside of his wrist —'at twenty‑three minutes past four in the morning.'
'That's what I thought,' Degarmo said. 'So I wasn't going to bother you. You get the idea?' He took his shield out of his pocket and held it so that the light glinted on the gold and the blue enamel. 'I'm a police lieutenant.'
The clerk shrugged. 'Very well. I hope there isn't going to be any trouble. I'd better announce you then. What names?'
'Lieutenant Degarmo and Mr Marlowe.'
'Apartment 716. That will be Miss Fromsett. One moment.'
He went behind a glass screen and we heard him talking on the phone after a longish pause. He came back and nodded.
'Miss Fromsett is in. She will receive you.'
'That's certainly a load off my mind,' Degarmo said. 'And don't bother to call your housepeeper and send him up to the scatter. I'm allergic to house‑peepers.'
The clerk gave a small cold smile and we got into the elevator.
The seventh floor was cool and quiet. The corridor seemed a mile long. We came at last to a door with 716 on it in gilt numbers in a circle of gilt leaves. There was an ivory button beside he door. Degarmo pushed it and chimes rang inside the door and it was opened.
Miss Fromsett wore a quilted blue robe over her pyjamas. On her feet were small tufted slippers with high heels. Her dark hair was fluffed out engagingly and the cold cream had been wiped from her face and just enough make‑up applied.
We went past her into a rather narrow room with several handsome oval mirrors and grey period furniture upholstered in blue damask. It didn't look like apartment‑house furniture. She sat down on a slender love seat and leaned back and waited calmly for somebody to say something.
I said: 'This is Lieutenant Degarmo of the Bay City police. We're looking for Kingsley. He's not at his house. We thought you might be able to give us an idea where to find him.
She spoke to me without looking at me. 'Is it that urgent?'
'Yes. Something has happened.'
'What has happened?' Degarmo said bluntly: 'We just want to know where Kingsley is, sister. We don't have time to build up a scene.'
Raymond CHANDLER, The Lady in the Lake, 1943.
ANALYSE LINGUISTIQUE
1. Le candidat analysera les segments du texte indiqués ci-après par un soulignage.
- That will be Miss Fromsett et She will receive you .
- He went behind a glass screen and we heard him talking on the phone [...].
- Is it that urgent?
2. A partir d'exemples choisis dans l'ensemble du texte, le candidat traitera la question suivante:
- Les mots en WH
Aussi bien pour l'analyse des segments soulignés que pour le traitement de la question, le candidat fondera son argumentation sur une étude précise de formes tirées du texte. Il procédera, à partir de ces formes, à toutes les manipulations et comparaisons jugées utiles, en se référant à leur contexte .