Subject inversion in French: The limits of information structure
- My objective here is to assess the relevance of information structural notions for analyzing subject inversion in French. Subject inversion is not a unified phenomenon. In fact, there are three distinct constructions featuring an inverted subject. I show that the sentences do not have the same informational potential (the type of focus-ground articulation they are compatible with) depending on the construction they abide by. I propose a contextual factor – the informational solidarity between the verb and its first argument – to account for those differences. Then, I show that the three constructions share a common feature that pertains to a completely different dimension: the perspective chosen to describe the situation. I adopt Langacker's notion of absolute construal to characterize it. Finally, I present another common feature: the blocking of the referential anchoring of the referent of indefinite and partitive NPs.
| Author: | Jean-Marie MarandinGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-715596 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.21248/hpsg.2011.19 |
| ISSN: | 1535-1793 |
| Parent Title (English): | Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) |
| Publisher: | CSLI Publications |
| Place of publication: | Stanford, CA |
| Document Type: | Conference Proceeding |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2011/11/16 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2011 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Contributing Corporation: | International Conference on Head Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (18 : 2011 : Seattle, Wash.) |
| Release Date: | 2024/09/06 |
| GND Keyword: | Inversion <Grammatik>; Informationsstruktur; Subjekt <Linguistik> |
| Volume: | 18.2011 |
| Page Number: | 21 |
| First Page: | 327 |
| Last Page: | 347 |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 522142036 |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache |
| 4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik | |
| 4 Sprache / 44 Französisch, romanische Sprachen allgemein / 440 Romanische Sprachen; Französisch | |
| Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
