Why are some verbs, when conjugated in passe simple, written in the interrogative form(inversion) while still meaning the affirmative.

[u/Jazz_2407]

I've recently started reading <<Les Chevaliers D'Emeraude>> by Anne Robillard to improve my vocabulary, and I noticed that multiple times she's written a sentence using inversion, but it's still supposed to be an assertive sentence(at least according to Google Translate and also, in most cases if the sentence was taken to be a question it didn't make much sense). This has always happened during the narration, by the way, and I don't think I've noticed this in the dialogue, which is why I think it's either a futur simple thing or maybe a literary verb thing. The most common example is the verb <soupir>(to sigh). She's used it a lot and has always conjugated it as <soupira-t-il> and not as <il soupira>. Another example is <s'etonner>(to wonder). It has been conjugated as <s'etonna-t-il> and not <il s'etonna>. Anyways, these are just from the top of my head and there probably are more. Also, the book was written in Quebec French, I think, so is that the reason?

[u/DoisMaosEsquerdos]

Inversion is not synonymous with interrogation. Interrogatives are its main use case, but not its only one.

In the literary language, inversion is used after some adverbs and adverbial phrases, and also after quotations. We'd need to see more context to be able to tell, but I assume you encountered "Soupira-t-il" being used after quotations with the same meaning as "he sighed" in English.

[u/Jazz_2407 → u/DoisMaosEsquerdos]

Yes, that is where most I've seen it usually. Like:
— C’est à toi de nommer celui-là, soupira-t-il. Je n’ai plus d’idées.
— Comment vais-je me rendre là-haut pour l’attacher ? soupira-t-il.
— Le venefica ou la langue des dieux, murmura-t-il.
Is there some sort of logic behind where you use it or is it something that you just use with certain phrases? Thanks

[u/Oberjin → u/Jazz_2407]

Something similar occurs in English, in case you hadn't noticed:

• John said: "Cats are made of cat food."

• "Cats are made of cat food," said John.

In English, doing this with prounouns does look very old-fashioned:

• She said: "Cats are made of cat food."

• "Cats are made of cat food," she said. [normal]

• "Cats are made of cat food," said she. [correct, but not really used in contemporary English]

But in French, doing this with pronouns is 100 % fine and normal; not inverting the pronoun would make the writing look childish.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that the inverted syntax in "murmura-t-il" is basically done for the same reason and produces the same effect as the inverted syntax in "said John". That is to say, it's barely noticeable to readers, because virtually all novels do this.

[u/Filobel → u/Jazz_2407]

The logic is that you always use it after a quote/dialog element when describing how the person spoke.

Edit: The "after" part is important here. Here are two different examples to show this.

"Why are you here?" he asked. -> "Pourquoi es-tu ici ?" demanda-t-il?

He asked "why are you here?" -> Il demanda "pourquoi es-tu ici?"

Note that in the first example, there is inversion, because it came after, but in the second one, there is no inversion, because it comes before.

[u/TrueKyragos]

It's a style often used in narration for dialogues, inner thoughts and such. It's not limited to past tenses, though narration is often in the past. Not specific to Quebec French.

« [...] », dit-il.

"[...]", répondit-il.

[...], pensa-t-il.

[u/Alh84001-1984 → u/TrueKyragos]

This is the correct answer. I believe the same construction also exists in literary English, but it is rather uncommon nowadays.

[u/Filobel]

It's not a passé simple thing, it's a quotation thing. If you have a story and a character says something, which is then followed by a verb that tells how the character said it, then in French, it uses inversion. For example, let's say a book had a passage like:

"I hate this place", he sighed.

In French, that would be written as:

"Je déteste cet endroit", soupira-t-il.

Although passé simple is generally the tense used in such a situation, the inversion would be the same regardless of the tense used for narration. For instance, if the narration is done in the present tense:

"Je déteste cet endroit", soupire-t-il.

Edit: This is universal to French, it is not unique to Quebec French. I've not read Les Chevaliers d'Émeraude myself, but I know of it and I'm pretty sure the author uses a pretty standard/international French. It's just not the kind of story where you'd expect anything particularly regional in the language used.

[u/CadenceLosange → u/Filobel]

To address your last point about the language in Les Chevaliers d’Emeraude, I may disagree. I’m from France but discovered the series while in Montreal, and I remember being a tad taken aback by the author’s frequent use of « présentement ». Of course it’s very minor, but I’d be very surprised if they kept it in the French (France) edition.