A stranger in the house: The French article de
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Marc Wilmet
Abstract
The present contribution argues in favour of the recognition of an article de in French which occurs either alone or with another article. The approach adopted calls for an historical recapitulation, i.e. “where does the article come from?”, a theoretical investigation, i.e. “what is an article?”, and the identification of an inventory, i.e. “what qualifies as an article?”. Finally, a table is provided which summarizes the articles in terms of three pairs of oppositions, viz. part vs. whole, mass vs. count, continuous vs. discontinuous. The article de is definable as a partitive article, sometimes mass or count, continuous or discontinuous (where the form is de), sometimes continuous mass (where the form is du, de la), sometimes discontinuous mass or count (where the form is des), sometimes continuous mass and count (where the form is d’un, d’une).
Abstract
The present contribution argues in favour of the recognition of an article de in French which occurs either alone or with another article. The approach adopted calls for an historical recapitulation, i.e. “where does the article come from?”, a theoretical investigation, i.e. “what is an article?”, and the identification of an inventory, i.e. “what qualifies as an article?”. Finally, a table is provided which summarizes the articles in terms of three pairs of oppositions, viz. part vs. whole, mass vs. count, continuous vs. discontinuous. The article de is definable as a partitive article, sometimes mass or count, continuous or discontinuous (where the form is de), sometimes continuous mass (where the form is du, de la), sometimes discontinuous mass or count (where the form is des), sometimes continuous mass and count (where the form is d’un, d’une).
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- The editors ix
- Introduction xi
- Determiners and definiteness: Functional semantics and structural differentiation 1
- Articles, definite and indefinite 27
- Typological correlations in nominal determination in Romance 45
- A stranger in the house: The French article de 65
- Determination in endocentric and exocentric languages: With evidence primarily from Danish and Italian 79
- Bare predicate nominals in Romance languages 101
- Definiteness effect and the role of the coda in existential constructions 131
- Determination of N2 modifiers in Spanish nominal syntagmatic compounds 163
- Reference to individuals, person, and the variety of mapping parameters 189
- English th - forms 213
- Stating the case for þ - root and hw - root determiners 233
- On certain differences between noun phrases and clauses 265
- Determination, nominalisation and conceptual processing 287
- The semantics and pragmatics of the possessive determiner 309
- Reference, determiners and descriptive content 337
- Index 365
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors vii
- The editors ix
- Introduction xi
- Determiners and definiteness: Functional semantics and structural differentiation 1
- Articles, definite and indefinite 27
- Typological correlations in nominal determination in Romance 45
- A stranger in the house: The French article de 65
- Determination in endocentric and exocentric languages: With evidence primarily from Danish and Italian 79
- Bare predicate nominals in Romance languages 101
- Definiteness effect and the role of the coda in existential constructions 131
- Determination of N2 modifiers in Spanish nominal syntagmatic compounds 163
- Reference to individuals, person, and the variety of mapping parameters 189
- English th - forms 213
- Stating the case for þ - root and hw - root determiners 233
- On certain differences between noun phrases and clauses 265
- Determination, nominalisation and conceptual processing 287
- The semantics and pragmatics of the possessive determiner 309
- Reference, determiners and descriptive content 337
- Index 365
