The Diachronic Development of a French Indefinite Pronoun
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Amanda Edmonds
Abstract
Both Modern French quantifiers and the Modern French Determiner Phrase have been the focus of numerous analyses. The current study is a diachronic contribution to this literature, focusing on the development of one universal quantifier—chacun “each”—from 1100 through 1925. Old and Middle French chacun fulfilled a variety of syntactic functions: It was used as a pronoun, a modifier, and was found in emphatic constructions with the indefinite article (un chacun “a each”). By the 16thcentury, this surface heterogeneity gave way and pronominal chacun dominated. On the basis of the diachronic evidence, I first consider the possibility of extending an existing analysis of a different quantifier, aucun “none, not any,” to chacun. After arguing against this extension, I suggest that, contrary to appearances, a unified syntactic structure underlies the Old and Middle French chacun, and that this single construction gave rise to two modern syntactic structures.
Abstract
Both Modern French quantifiers and the Modern French Determiner Phrase have been the focus of numerous analyses. The current study is a diachronic contribution to this literature, focusing on the development of one universal quantifier—chacun “each”—from 1100 through 1925. Old and Middle French chacun fulfilled a variety of syntactic functions: It was used as a pronoun, a modifier, and was found in emphatic constructions with the indefinite article (un chacun “a each”). By the 16thcentury, this surface heterogeneity gave way and pronominal chacun dominated. On the basis of the diachronic evidence, I first consider the possibility of extending an existing analysis of a different quantifier, aucun “none, not any,” to chacun. After arguing against this extension, I suggest that, contrary to appearances, a unified syntactic structure underlies the Old and Middle French chacun, and that this single construction gave rise to two modern syntactic structures.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction ix
- A Polarity-Sensitive Disjunction 1
- Taking a Closer Look at Romance VN Compounds 13
- Beyond Descriptivism 27
- Do Subjects Have a Place in Spanish? 51
- On the Conceptual Role of Number 67
- The Diachronic Development of a French Indefinite Pronoun 83
- A Syntactic Analysis of Italian Deverbal-Nouns 97
- V-N Compounds In Italian 113
- A Reinterpretation of Quirky Subjects and Related Phenomena in Spanish 127
- Cognitive Constraints on Assertion Scope 143
- Avant que - or Avant de -Clauses 155
- Null Directional Prepositions in Romanian and Spanish 169
- A Unified Account for the Additive and the Scalar Uses of Italian Neppure 187
- Default Morphology in Second Language Spanish 201
- Early Object Omission in Child French and English 213
- Agreement Paradigms Across Moods and Tenses 229
- Italian Volerci 247
- Restructuring of Reverse Psychological Predicate 263
- Subject Index 279
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction ix
- A Polarity-Sensitive Disjunction 1
- Taking a Closer Look at Romance VN Compounds 13
- Beyond Descriptivism 27
- Do Subjects Have a Place in Spanish? 51
- On the Conceptual Role of Number 67
- The Diachronic Development of a French Indefinite Pronoun 83
- A Syntactic Analysis of Italian Deverbal-Nouns 97
- V-N Compounds In Italian 113
- A Reinterpretation of Quirky Subjects and Related Phenomena in Spanish 127
- Cognitive Constraints on Assertion Scope 143
- Avant que - or Avant de -Clauses 155
- Null Directional Prepositions in Romanian and Spanish 169
- A Unified Account for the Additive and the Scalar Uses of Italian Neppure 187
- Default Morphology in Second Language Spanish 201
- Early Object Omission in Child French and English 213
- Agreement Paradigms Across Moods and Tenses 229
- Italian Volerci 247
- Restructuring of Reverse Psychological Predicate 263
- Subject Index 279
