J'avoue et c'est le cas de le dire: Marqueurs d'assentiment?

This article describes the functioning of two discourse operators, one, c'est le cas de le dire 'it is worth saying', formed on the French verb dire 'to say' and the other, j'avoue, on the performative verb avouer 'to confess'. We provide a syntactic/semantic description and examine the possible reasons for blocking the appearance of one in place of the other, based on the following constraints: weakening of the act of confession, requirement of a negative polarity, a high degree and/or an exemplary situation. Taking these elements into account, we highlight the specific features of the two operators under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]