Avant que - or Avant de -Clauses
-
Anne Le Draoulec
Abstract
The paper aims at challenging the way in which certain constructions are regularly considered to be ‘presupposition triggers’. More precisely, the study focuses on the temporal clauses introduced by avant que or avant de in French (the equivalent of before in English). It explores arguments for the hypothesis that in some cases, avant que or (much more often) avant de may break away from the domain ofpresupposition, and play the role of temporal succession connectors between two asserted clauses. Such a construction (designated as the ‘assertive construction’) is related to the ‘quand inverse’ (“inverse when”) construction, both requiring a postposed temporal clause. The remarkable property associated with quand inverse – creation of a surprise effect – is lacking in the case of the assertive construction with avant que/de: however, it is put in evidence that the later can also give rise to specific semantic effects.
Abstract
The paper aims at challenging the way in which certain constructions are regularly considered to be ‘presupposition triggers’. More precisely, the study focuses on the temporal clauses introduced by avant que or avant de in French (the equivalent of before in English). It explores arguments for the hypothesis that in some cases, avant que or (much more often) avant de may break away from the domain ofpresupposition, and play the role of temporal succession connectors between two asserted clauses. Such a construction (designated as the ‘assertive construction’) is related to the ‘quand inverse’ (“inverse when”) construction, both requiring a postposed temporal clause. The remarkable property associated with quand inverse – creation of a surprise effect – is lacking in the case of the assertive construction with avant que/de: however, it is put in evidence that the later can also give rise to specific semantic effects.
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
