Fronted qualifiers in French and English

1. Introduction

The phenomenon, which I wish to discuss in this article¹ first came to my notice while doing text analysis with a group of students. The document we were discussing, a leaflet introducing a French university, had English and French versions on facing pages. The English version was on the left-hand page, but since the document came from a French university, I presume the French version was written first. The French text was as follows.

Dédiée aux sciences sociales et humaines, l’université Pierre Mendès France est forte de sa diversité; diversité de son enseignement, de sa recherché, de ses publics, de ses partenaires …

Université ouverte au dialogue, l’UPMF a une tradition d’échanges que traduisent ses coopérations multiples, tant entre ses composantes qu’avec les autres universités françaises et étrangères.

Université tournée vers l’avenir, l’UMPF veut répondre aux défis actuels: la construction de l’espace européen de l’enseignement supérieur, une offre de formation associant filières généralistes, filières technologiques et professionnalisées, une recherche bien structurée en phase avec les préoccupations de notre société, un environnement où l’étudiant est l’acteur principal.

Université citoyenne, l’ambition de l’UPMF est à l’image du nom prestigieux qu’elle s’est choisi, symbole d’alliance harmonieuse de la pensée et de l’action, de l’audace intellectuelle et de la lucidité dans l’engagement.

Cette plaquette est une invitation à nous rencontrer.

Soyez les bienvenus.

It will be noted that the first four clauses of this text all begin with a relatively complex noun group functioning as subject. The first clause has as subject the segment Dédiée aux sciences sociales et humaines, l’université Pierre Mendès France. This has a non-finite clause in initial position, and this clause has a descriptive function in relation to the following noun group, l’Université Pierre Mendès France, which functions as head. Hence its function is that of modifier. However the unmarked position for this in French (as it is in English for groups or clauses with modifying function) is following the head (Noailly 1999), where it would have the function of qualifier. In this I follow the practice in Systemic Linguisitics established over several decades of labelling modifying elements placed before the head as modifier, and those placed after the head as qualifier (Berry 1975; Halliday 2014), even though they have the same function, that of describing, or giving additional information about the head. It is for this reason that I have coined the term fronted qualifiers for this phenomenon.

The subjects of the following three clauses are, in order:

Université ouverte au dialogue, l’IUMPF

Université tournée vers l’avenir, l’UMPF

Université citoyenne, l’ambition de l’UMPF

The first two of these begin with a nominal group, followed by a second. This might be thought of as an appositive structure, but in order for this to be the case, it should be possible for each of the nominal groups in the appositive structure to be omitted without affecting the acceptability of the clause, that is, for either of them to function separately as subject. Quirk et al. (1985, 1302) call this “full apposition”. However, this is not the case, for omitting the second of the noun groups gives the unacceptable clauses:

*Université ouverte au dialogue a une tradition d’échanges …

*Université tournée vers l’avenir veut répondre aux défis actuels …

This is partly due to the absence of an article, but even supplying an article, while giving an acceptable grammatical structure, would not supply the intended sense. Hence it is not possible to conceive of the first nominal group in each case functioning on its own as subject, and if one asks the question what is their function, what are they doing, then they do each seem to have a modifying, descriptive, function in relation to the following nominal group. It therefore seems reasonable to consider these, too, to be complex modifiers followed by head. The last one is curious, in that, although it begins with a nominal group, this has a modifying function in relation to the completive of the prepositional phrase.

The English version of this text, which appears on the left-hand page, is as follows.

Dedicated to the Social Sciences and the Humanities, Pierre Mendès France University owes its strength to its diversity. Diversity of courses, diversity of research, diversity of learners, diversity of partners.

As a university respectful of dialogue, UMPF has a tradition of openness reflected in its numerous forms of cooperation with its own faculties as well as with other universities both French and international.

Geared to the future, UPMF is also bent on facing current challenges: the construction of a Europe-wide Higher Education, the provision of an education that links general, technological, and professional courses as well as a structured research sector in tune with contemporary society, and access to a learning environment where the student is the main actor.

A citizen University, Pierre Mendès France aspires to the prestige associated with the name that it chose for itself: a symbol of harmonious alliance between thought and action, intellectual verve and uncompromising involvement.

This brochure is your invitation tro get to know us.

Welcome to Pierre Mendès France University.

The structure in this English version seems to be calqued on that of the French. The subjects of the first four clauses are:

Dedicated to the Social Sciences and the Humanities, Pierre Mendès France University

As a University respectful of dialogue, UPMF

Geared to the future, UPMF

A citizen University, Pierre Mendès France

The first and third of these have a non-finite clause preceding the head; the second has a prepositional phrase, and the fourth has a nominal group, again, all preceding the head. Like their French counterparts, these all have a modifying function in relation to the following head. My intuitive feeling about these two texts, of which, I presume the English is a translation of the French, is that while the French text works perfectly well, the English text does not. Each of the clauses taken individually seems to work fairly well, but when read as a text, it somehow does not seem to work. This would seem to indicate that this is an area where English and French function somewhat differently. It suggests that while a structure may be grammatically correct and acceptable in a language, that does not mean that it can be reproduced at will, there may be textual constraints that differ from language to language. In terms of translation, this would mean that just as word-for-word translation is impossible, so clause-for-clause translation may be impossible too. As in this case, even though each clause of the translation is “correct” in itself, the resulting text somehow does not “work” as a text. It is this question, which I would like to discuss in this article. It would be interesting to know how other languages function in this respect, but this is beyond the scope of this article. The article will be mainly a presentation of the problem and its extent, and but I will also suggest lines of inquiry, although I cannot hope to produce a conclusive solution within the scope of this article.

2. The phenomenon in English

Although there seems to be something peculiar in the use of fronted qualifiers in the document presented above, the phenomenon does, nonetheless, exist in English. The following is an extract from a biographical note of the poet Roger McGough which appeared in a leaflet for a poetry competition in 2000.

Roger McGough sprang to fame in the Sixties as one of the upbeat, pop, iconoclastic Liverpool Poets and is now one of the best known and best selling poets in Britain.

Born in Liverpool in 1937, he was educated at St. Mary’s College and at the University of Hull.

A one-time teacher, he went on to become a performer, singer and songwriter with the group Scaffold, but he is primarily famous as a poet and has published many books of poems including Melting into the Foreground; Summer with Monika, Defying Gravity; and Selected Poems 1967–1987 (published in two volumes: Vol. 1 Blazing Fruit and Vol. 2 You at the Back). He is also well-known for his poems for children and has published several highly acclaimed volumes, the most recent of which are Pillow Talk and Lucky. His hit collection of 2000 is The Way Things Are (Viking).

Now an international ambassador for poetry, he was awarded an OBE for his work in 1987.

The Second, third and fourth paragraphs of this extract all begin with an example of this phenomenon:

Born in Liverpool in 1937

A one-time teacher

Now an international ambassador for poetry

Some may feel that these are somewhat different to the French examples above in that there may be some hesitation as to the acceptability of the reconstructed clauses with these in qualifying position, following the pronoun:

?He, born in Liverpool in 1937, was educated at …

?He, a one-time teacher, went on to become …

?He, now an international ambassador for poetry, was awarded an OBE …

I feel that these are not unacceptable, though they do feel a little odd, as though the qualifying phrase were added as an afterthought. They become incontrovertibly acceptable, however, if the pronoun is replaced by a nominal group such as “the poet”. But, more importantly, the function of these, in the original, does seem to be to supply descriptive material about the following pronoun; hence it seems reasonable to consider these as complex modifiers like the French examples above.

3. The importance of genre

The phenomenon seems to appear more frequently in some genres than others. In French, tourist brochures seem to be a genre where a significant number of examples can be found. I will here take as a (haphazard, if not random) example, a tourist brochure for the town of Rennes, chosen partly because this document also has English translations (albeit not particular good ones). Each page has between 150 and 250 words of text in French, followed by an English translation. One page of this document provides the following examples. The potential fronted qualifiers have been highlighted in bold:

1. Capitale de la Bretagne, Rennes est au palmarès des grandes agglomérations reconnues pour leur qualité de vie.

2. Métropole jeune et dynamique avec près de 60 000 étudiants, elle est l’un des premiers pôles universitaires sur le plan national.

3. Forte de sa position géographique, Rennes Métropole bénéficie d’une connexion à l’ensemble des réseaux de communication internationaux.

4. Carrefour du seul réseau autoroutier gratuit de France, l’agglomération rennaise n’est qu’à quelques encablures de route de toutes les grandes villes de l’Ouest.

Example 1 has as its initial segment a nominal group. With the head this constitutes two nominal groups with the same referent. While some might think of this as a case of apposition, the first component could not function as subject on its own, so, on that criterion, it does not qualify as “full apposition”. Moreover, the first group, Capitale de la Bretagne, does seem to be describing the second, Rennes, and hence to have a modifying role. From this point of view it can be considered to be a fronted qualifier.

Example 2 also has a nominal group in initial position. However the length of this segment, Métropole jeune et dynamique avec près de 60 000 étudiants, makes it much more difficult to read this as a case of apposition, and the fronted qualifier analysis seems the more likely of the two.

Example 3 has an adjectival group in initial position. Halliday rarely uses the term adjectival group and appears to restrict its use to segments functioning in attributive position. He points out that this type of group “is normally unable to function as subject in the clause” (2014, 391). This is true of the group under consideration here, which could not function as subject alone, but can function as part of the subject, modifying the head. This is a good candidate for analysis as a fronted qualifier; the segment Forte de sa position géographique describes Rennes Métropole. However, it might also be possible to read it as a circumstantial adjunct of cause: it is because the town’s geographical position that it has the benefit of a network of communication.

Example 4, like example 2 is a long nominal group, and hence an analysis in terms of fronted qualifier seems the most probable. The segment Carrefour du seul réseau autoroutier gratuit de France describes l’aggomération rennaise.

The English versions of these four clauses are as follows:

• (1a)Capital of Brittany, Rennes is on the prize list of the great agglomerations recognized for their quality of life.

• (2a)Young and dynamic metropolis with nearly 60,000 students, it is one of the first university poles on the national level.

• (3a)Because of its exceptionally good geographical position, Rennes, the capital of Brittany, enjoys the advantages of excellent connections to the whole network of international communication.

• (4a)At the crossroads of the only free motorway network in France, Rennes is near the major cities in the west of France.

Like their French counterparts, examples 1a and 2a begin with nominal groups. In 1a, this seems to be a marked order in English, and an inversion of the two nominal groups would give a more natural reading. Example 2a seems to be a genuine fronted qualifier (leaving aside other translation problems). Example 3a, has lifted the ambiguity of the French, by making the initial segment explicitly a circumstance of cause, so this is definitely not a fronted qualifier. Example 4a has a prepositional phrase as its initial segment; this is a fronted qualifier giving modifying information about the head.

Another page of this document provides the following examples:

1. Erigée en principe de gouvernance, la solidarité se conjugue au quotidien, notamment à travers la production de logements adaptés aux publics spécifiques (personnes âgées, gens de voyage, etc.).

2. Souple mais solide, le tissu associatif rennais milite lui aussi pour le brassage des populations et la démocratie de proximité.

These examples have, respectively, a non-finite clause and an adjectival group in initial position. They both have a modifying function in relation to the following head, and are thus fronted qualifiers. The segment Erigée en principe de gouvernance gives descriptive information about la solidarité, and souple mais solide describes le tissue associative.

The English versions of these are as follows:

• (5a)Well-established as a principle of good government, solidarity is a notion which finds its practical expression in everyday life, particularly through the provision of housing which is adapted to the needs of specific groups of people, e.g. elderly people, and travellers.

• (6a)Flexible but solid, Rennes’ network of societies and associations also plays its part in working for local democracy and the intermixing of different types of people within a community.

Example 5a, like its French counterpart, has a non-finite clause in initial position which functions as a fronted qualifier. Example 6a begins with two coordinated single word adjectives. The unmarked position for this segment would not be after the head, so it cannot be considered a fronted qualifier. However, the position it has here is not its unmarked position either, which would be following the genitive determiner: Rennes’ flexible but solid network of societies … So in this case we do have a fronting phenomenon, even though it is not a case of a fronted qualifier.

I shall take one further page from this booklet as an example. This provides the following examples:

1. Vitrine emblématique de la culture pour tous, le bâtiment à l’architecture audacieuse signée par Christian de Portzamparc, regroupe le Musée de Bretagne, l’Espace des sciences et la Bibliothèque.

2. Carrefour de débats et de rencontres, on y vient pour s’informer et s’instruire, à toute heure et à tout âge.

3. Terre de prédilection pour l’édition et la bande dessinée, la Bretagne cultive par ailleurs son amour des mots et des livres.

Here, example 9 has a nominal group in initial position, but its length, like some examples seen above, seems to favour an analysis as fronted qualifier, rather than as a case of apposition. It could not stand on its own as subject, and would be better placed following the head. Thus Vitrine emblématique de la culture pour tous describes le bâtiment à l’architecture audacieuse signee par Christian de Portzamparc. Example 8 is curious in that its initial nominal group, Carrefour de débats et de rencontres, modifies, not the subject, on, but the adverbial pronoun, y. Example 9 again has a nominal group, Terre de predilection pour l’édition et la bande dessinée, functioning as a fronted qualifier modifying la Bretagne.

The English versions of these are as follows:

• (7a)An emblematic showcase for culture for all, this building, whose daring architecture is the work of Christian de Portzamparc, brings together the Musée de Bretagne (Brittany Museum), the Espace des Sciences (Science Centre), and the Bibliothèque (Library).

• (8a)A forum for discussions and meetings, it is a place where everyone, of any age, can come to get information and to learn.

• (9a)As a popular area for publishing and the creation of graphic novels/comic books, Brittany also cultivates its love of words and books.

Examples 7a and 8a both begin with nominal groups, and it will be noted that the curious nature of the French example 8 has disappeared, for in the English version the initial nominal group does modify the subject. Example 9a has a prepositional phrase as a fronted qualifier.

In general, the English examples do not sound particularly natural. In particular most of the examples with nominal groups as fronted qualifiers, would be less marked with the nominal groups inversed. Of the others, many might be more natural expressed otherwise; for example, 4a might be rewritten with the content of the fronted qualifier as a relative clause following the head. From this it would be possible to formulate the hypothesis that while fronted qualifiers are possible in English, they are less frequent than in French.

4. Relative frequency

As a first attempt to test the hypothesis that fronted qualifiers occur more frequently in French than in English, I have taken, at random, one copy of a French quality daily newspaper, and one of an English quality newspaper. In each case, I have noted the examples found by a cursive reading of the newspapers in question. In each case I divided the examples found into those which appear to be genuine examples of fronted qualifiers, those which are doubtful or marginal examples, and those which are superficially similar, but which are not fronted qualifiers. I have included this last group as I feel it helps one see where the limits of this category lie.

The French newspaper used for this purpose was the edition of Le Monde for 20 November 2010. This provided the following seven examples of fronted qualifiers;

1. De coup d’Etat en rébellion, coupée en deux pendant sept ans, la Côte d’Ivoire a retrouvé l’espoir avec des accords de paix ouvrant la voie à des élections ouvertes à tous les candidats, les premières de l’histoire du premier producteur mondial de cacao.

   [With successive coups and rebellions, cut in two for seven years, the Ivory Coast has recovered hope with peace agreements which open the way to elections open to all candidates, the first in the history of the world’s most important cocoa producer.]²

This example has a prepositional phrase, De coup d’Etat en rebellion, functioning as a fronted qualifier; this is followed by a non-finite clause, coupéee en deux pendant sept ans, which also functions as a fronted qualifier of the head, la Côte d’Ivoire, which follows.

1. Bien que prévues avant le bombardement nord-coréen de l’Ile de Yongpyong (quatre morts et une quinzaine de blessés), le 23 novembre, elles [les manœuvres navales américano-sud-coréennes] constituent une démonstration de force de la Corée du Sud et des Etats-Unis en réponse à cette attaque.

   [Despite being organized before the North Korean bombing of Yongpyong Island (four dead and about fifteen wounded) on 23 November, they [the American and South Korean naval manoeuvres] constitute a show of force by South Korea and the United States as a response to this attack.]

1. Refusant de s’avouer vaincu, M. Sobhi est néanmoins parti motiver ses troupes le jour des élections.

   [Refusing to admit defeat, Mr Sobhi has nevertheless left to motivate his troops for election day.]

Examples 11 and 12 both have non-finite clauses, respectively, Bien que prévues avant le bombardement nord-coréen de l’Ile de Yongpyong (quatre morts et une quinzaine de blessés), le 23 novembre, and Refusant de s’avouer vaincu, functioning as fronted qualifiers.

1. Egalement présent dans les conserves de fruits et légumes, Del Monte était arrivé sur ce marché en 2002, en rachetant la division animale de son compatriote Heinz, riche de marque plébiscitées par les Américains, comme 9 Lives, Kibbles’n’Bits, Pup-Peroni, ou Snausages and Pounce.

   [Also involved in the production of tinned fruit and vegetables, Del Monte entered this market in 2002, by buying the meat division of its compatriot Heinz, which had many makes which Americans adore, such as 9 Lives, Kibbles’n’Bits, Pup-Peroni, and Snausages and Pounce.]

2. Agé de 37 ans, il vit à Kaboul depuis cinq ans.

   [Aged 37, he has been living in Kabul for five years.]

Examples 13 and 14 both have adjectival groups, that is, Egalement présent dans les conserves de fruits et legumes, and Agé de 37 ans, functioning as fronted qualifiers.

1. Nommé en avril 2005, cet ancien énarque et préfet a décidé de jeter l’éponge, lassé par les manœuvres d’appareil qui se déployaient autour de lui.

   [Appointed in April 2005, this former student of ENA and prefect has decided to throw in the towel, worn out by the technocratic manoeuvring going on around him.]

This example has a non-finite clause, Nommé en avril 2005, functioning as a fronted qualifier.

1. Filiale de Richemont, le numéro deux mondial du luxe, Cartier, présent dans 50 pays, ouvre son 300^e point de vente et son 9^e à Hong Kong.

   [A subsidiary of Richement, the world number two in luxury goods, Cartier, present in 50 countries, has opened its 300th outlet, its 9^th in Hong Kong.]

This example begins with three successive nominal groups; the first two, Filiale de Richemont, le numéro deux mondial du luxe, are fronted qualifiers of the third, Cartier.

This issue of Le Monde also provides three doubtful or marginal examples:

1. Polluée, surpeuplée, engoncée dans un carcan d’embouteillages, Djakarta a-t-elle atteint son point de saturation?

   [Polluted, overpopulated, trapped in a strait-jacket of traffic jams, has Djakarta reached its saturation point?]

2. Engluée dans la crise financière et monétaire, l’Union européenne est moins que jamais en mesure d’imposer ses vues.

   [Bogged down in a financial and monetary crisis, the European Union is less than ever in a position to impose its point of view.]

Examples 17 and 18 begin with non-finite clauses, three in the case of example 17, Polluée, surpeuplée, engoncée dans un carcan d’embouteillages, and Engluée dans la crise financière et monétaire in 18, which might be considered to function as fronted qualifiers, but which could also be thought of as circumstantial adjuncts of cause: it is because Djakarta is polluted and overpopulated that it has reached its saturation point, and it is because the European Union is bogged down that it cannot impose its point of view.

1. Plongé dans la vie locale florentine, rapidement acteur des premier mouvements citoyens anti-Berlusconi à l’orée des années 2000, ce Londonien s’est fait happer par l’ensorcellement italien.

   [Immersed in the local Florentine life, rapidly becoming an actor in the first anti-Berlusconi citizen movements in the early 2000s, this Londoner was ensnared by the Italian bewitchment.]

This example has a non-finite clause followed by a noun group, both of which might be fronted qualifiers, but which might also be construed as circumstances of time: it was after having been immersed in Florentine life, and having taken part in the anti-Berlusconi movement that he became bewitched.

Finally, here are some examples, which bear a superficial similarity, but which are not fronted qualifiers.

1. Blessé, le nouveau président avait songé a démissionner.

   [Being wounded, the new president had considered resigning.]

2. Humiliée, l’équipe de France aurait touché le fond lors de leur troisième et dernier test-match de la traditionnelle tournée de l’automne, après de pâles victoires contre le Fidji (43–12) et l’Argentine (15–9).

   [Humiliated, the French team plumbed the depths in their third and final test match of the traditional autumn tournament, after pale victories against Fiji (43–12) and Argentina (15–9).]

Although, in some way, the initial past participles in these examples might be thought of as describing the head, le nouveau president in 20 and l’équipe de France in 21, their function seems to be giving a reason: it is because he was wounded that the president considered resigning; it is because they were humiliated, that the French team plumbed the depths; hence these are circumstantial adjuncts of cause. However, it is difficult to be categorical, and it may ultimately be a question of interpretation on the part of the reader. It may also be the case that they are, to some extent, genuinely, perhaps deliberately, ambiguous, and that the writer is combining the effects of description and circumstance.

1. Transformés en tristes cantonniers contraints de ramasser à la pelle leurs rêves craquelés, les Bleus ont surtout plongé le nez dans le glacial bourbier de leurs lacunes et de leurs limites.

   [Transformed into sad roadworkers forced to gather their broken dreams by the barrow-load, les Bleus buried their noses in the icy quagmire of their own deficiencies and limits.]

2. Mise en cause dans sa propension à tester d’innombrables joueurs – plus de 80 ont été sélectionnés depuis sa prise de fonctions fin 2007 – et dans ses choix, Marc Lièvrement se défend de toute versatilité.

   [Criticized because of his tendency to test numerous players – more than 80 have been selected since he took over the job at the end of 2007 – and because of his choices, Marc Lièvrement denies being unstable.]

Once, again, although superficially descriptive, the initial non-finite clauses in these examples seem to have a different function which is a combination of temporal and causal circumstances. It was when and because they were metaphorically transformed into sad roadworkers that they buried their noses in the quagmire; it was when and because Marc Lièvement was criticized that he responded by denying that he was unstable.

The English newspaper which I took for purposes of comparison is the issue of the Times for 7 March 2011. In this issue I found two clear examples of fronted qualifiers:

1. Walking with the aid of a white stick, he made an appearance on the red carpet alongside the film star, Gael García Bernal, at the film’s presentation at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004.

2. At 28, Stevens knows he has time on his side as he seeks to add to the 32 England caps he won with Bath before his two-year ban for recreational cocaine use, but unlike Tom Croft – who got another good 65 minutes under his belt in this game on his comeback from a shoulder injury – he is an outside bet at best to participate in this year’s World Cup.

The initial non-finite clause in 24, and the prepositional phrase in 25 have no more than a descriptive function in relation to the following heads. In 24, the segment Walking with a white stick is filling in the picture reinforced by the word appearance in the following clause. In 25, the phrase At 28 is simply a way of giving the age of Stevens; it is not providing temporal circumstances. They can then be classed as fronted qualifiers.

There was one further example, which is doubtful or marginal:

1. Adding to the humiliation, Libyan state television broadcast an intercepted recording of Richard Northern, Britain’s ambassador to Tripoli, talking to one opposition member.

The initial non-finite clause describes what the Libyan state television did, but it is also the result of their broadcasting the intercepted message, and hence might be construed as circumstances of result.

There were however a number of examples, which were superficially similar but, not examples of fronted qualifiers:

1. Pushed off the front pages by a second Antipodean disaster – the Christchurch earthquake – Queensland is setting about rebuilding its infrastructure after the damage caused by Cyclone Yasi.

The initial non-finite clause in this example is temporal: having been pushed off the front pages, Queensland is setting about rebuilding, and perhaps also causal.

1. Asked on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One whether he would like to revisit the decisions in the light of the crisis in North Africa, Dr Fox ducked the issue, a stance that is likely to irritate Downing Street.

2. Waging his lonely battle against double-digit inflation three decades ago, the Federal Reserve’s then-chairman Paul Volcker came to recognize that he was engaged in something akin to psychological warfare.

The initial non-finite clauses in these examples are both functioning as circumstantial adjuncts of time. It was when he was asked, that he ducked the question; it was while he was engaged in his lonely battle that he recognized what he was involved in.

1. Making matters worse, the present inflationary upsurge is being driven by increases in commodity prices that are, allegedly, beyond the Bank’s control.

The initial non-finite clause in 30 is a circumstantial adjunct expressing the result.

1. Nabbed while escorting a junior diplomat in a city that would have welcomed them, and which is full of their erstwhile colleagues acting as bodyguards for western television crews, this was not their finest hour.

The initial non-finite clause in this example functions as a circumstantial adjunct of cause; however it will be noted that this example is rather curious. The long initial clause, Nabbed while escorting a junior diplomat in a city that would have welcomed them, and which is full of their erstwhile colleagues acting as bodyguards for western television crews, does not refer to the subject, this, nor indeed to any noun group in the following clause, but to the referent of the possessive their.

So the French newspaper yielded seven clear and three marginal examples, the English newspaper provided only two clear and one marginal example. To this must be added the fact that this issue of Le Monde has 28 pages, while the issue of the Times has 64 pages. Even though the Times has a page size which is slightly larger than that of Le Monde, it is evident that there is considerably more text in the Times than in Le Monde. However, even with much more text, it yields considerably fewer examples. This then seems totally consistent with the hypothesis that fronted qualifiers are more frequent in French than in English. The presence of marginal examples also indicates that there is a grey area between circumstantial adjuncts and fronted qualifiers, which may make analysis difficult in some cases. Circumstantial adjuncts “essentially encode the background against which the process takes place” (Thompson 2004, 109); they express a wide range of circumstances, including time, place, manner, extent, cause and purpose; they usually have the form of adverbial groups or prepositional phrases, but nominal groups do also sometimes occur (Halliday 2014; Thompson 2004; Morley 2000). While they form part of the experiential structure, they cannot, in principle, become the subject or complement. However, Halliday points out that this “has become blurred in English” (2014, 311). This is the case, for example, in a passive clause with an agentive by-phrase, where the agent appears in adjunct form. Halliday calls this an indirect participant. Bloor and Bloor (1995) go further, simply treating the passive by-phrase as a circumstantial adjunct. Fronted qualifiers, on the other hand, are complex constituents within the nominal group which have a modifying function in relation to the head; the complexity of their form is such that they could be expected to be placed after the head, but actually occur before the head.

Moreover they occur in French in unexpected places. I found the following example on the label of a bottle of mineral water:

1. Jaillissant au pied des sommets alpins de Haute Savoie, l’eau minérale de Thonon est naturellement équilibrée en minéraux et oligo-éléments.

   [Springing forth below the alpine summits of Haute-Savoie, Thonon mineral water is naturally balanced in minerals and oligo-elements.]

5. Implications for thematic structure

The fact that fronted qualifiers typically appear in initial position in the clause, suggests that they are significant in terms of thematic structure. In Systemic Functional Linguistics, theme is usually defined as the speaker’s starting point, but there have been numerous suggestions as to what actually constitutes the theme (Berry 1996). If however, for the sake of argument, we take the Hallidayan point of view that theme is that part of the clause up to the end of the first main constituent (subject, predicator, complement or circumstantial adjunct) (Halliday 2014; Banks 2005), then analysis of these examples would give a result like that in analysis A. For the purposes of illustration, I have used the first clause in its French and English versions from the document cited in the introduction:

In this analysis, the initial non-finite clause, as a fronted qualifier, is part of the nominal group which constitutes the subject; hence the whole of this nominal group constitutes the theme of the clause.

On the other hand, the fronted qualifier, by definition, is in a marked position, and so we might consider that this markedness gives it thematic status. In this case, the fronted qualifier itself would be analysed as theme, even though it does not itself constitute a major component, but only part of a major component. This would give the analysis shown in analysis B.

However, a third possibility suggests itself, which would be to consider that the single level thematic analysis as too simple. It could be the case that in some more complex structures, the theme (and perhaps the rheme) can be subdivided into parts which are more thematic or more rhematic. This line of reasoning could give us an analysis where the whole of the first component is analysed as theme, but that within this, the fronted qualifier is the more thematic part. This possibility is shown in Analysis C.

One of the consequences of allowing for this subdividing of theme and rheme, would be that to some extent we are returning, at least partially, to the notion of communicative dynamism as it was put forward by the Prague School (Firbas 1992).

In each of the three above analyses, the analysis has been given for both English and French. However, it has been seen that fronted qualifiers are less frequent in English than in French, and so it could be argued that they are more marked in English than in French. Hence, it is possible that the analysis appropriate to each language is not the same, and that, for example, analysis A is appropriate for French, and analysis C appropriate for English.

6. Closing remarks

The object of this article is a modest one: it is to point out a difference between English and French which to the best of my knowledge has not been discussed before. Thus I am suggesting that the phenomenon which I have labelled “fronted qualifiers”, exists in both English and French. It is a complex segment which constitutes part of the subject, and has a modifying function in relation to the head; although, because of its complex nature, it might be expected to be placed after the head, it is in fact placed before it. Thus, in both languages it is a marked structure, but it seems to occur more frequently in French than in English. It would be interesting to see to what extent this phenomenon occurs in other languages.

We have seen that there is a grey area between fronted qualifiers and circumstantial adjuncts, which may pose problems of identification in some cases.

I have suggested that this has implications for thematic analysis, and made the tentative suggestion, that the thematic structures of these examples might be different in English and French and that, at least for the English examples, a subdivision of the theme into more thematic and less thematic parts might be a possibility worthy of consideration.