De : A genitive marker in French?
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Anne Carlier
Abstract
This paper deals with the evolution of the genitive case from Latin to Old and Middle French, and from Middle French to Modern French. The loss of morphological case inflection in French raises the question whether the category of the genitive is still a relevant notion. The authors claim it is, by showing that the prepositional phrase de + NP, which gradually spread from Latin to Modern French, fundamentally marks the dependency of a nominal constituent with respect to another nominal expression, just like the adnominal genitive did in Latin. They show that the preposition de underwent a pervasive grammaticalization process from a full-fledged preposition introducing adjuncts expressing spatial origin to a structural marker of arguments of verbal and (especially) nominal heads.
Abstract
This paper deals with the evolution of the genitive case from Latin to Old and Middle French, and from Middle French to Modern French. The loss of morphological case inflection in French raises the question whether the category of the genitive is still a relevant notion. The authors claim it is, by showing that the prepositional phrase de + NP, which gradually spread from Latin to Modern French, fundamentally marks the dependency of a nominal constituent with respect to another nominal expression, just like the adnominal genitive did in Latin. They show that the preposition de underwent a pervasive grammaticalization process from a full-fledged preposition introducing adjuncts expressing spatial origin to a structural marker of arguments of verbal and (especially) nominal heads.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Genitive case and genitive constructions 1
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Part 1. General surveys
- The genitive case and the possessive construction in Finnish 19
- The Russian genitive within the NP and the VP 55
- Nominal and pronominal possessors in Romanian 105
- De : A genitive marker in French? 141
- The Bantu connective construction 217
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Part 2. Case studies
- Word order restrictions in adnominal constructions 255
- Tracing the origins of the Swedish group genitive 299
- Floating genitives and possessive framing in Northern Akhvakh 333
- Index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Genitive case and genitive constructions 1
-
Part 1. General surveys
- The genitive case and the possessive construction in Finnish 19
- The Russian genitive within the NP and the VP 55
- Nominal and pronominal possessors in Romanian 105
- De : A genitive marker in French? 141
- The Bantu connective construction 217
-
Part 2. Case studies
- Word order restrictions in adnominal constructions 255
- Tracing the origins of the Swedish group genitive 299
- Floating genitives and possessive framing in Northern Akhvakh 333
- Index 355
