The Syntax of French

Rowlett, Paul

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511618642

Cited by 115 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…] is better characterized as style-shifting (rather than 'diglossia')' (Gadet, 2003: 5 andCoveney, 2011: 78, respectively). 1 The latter follows Ferguson's (1959) original sociolinguistic formulation for Arabic, Greek, Swiss German and Haitian Creole, and suggests that what is traditionally labelled 'French' actually spreads over two distinct grammars ( Barra-Jover, 2004Rowlett, 2007;Massot, 2008Massot, , 2010Zribi-Hertz, 2011). Ferguson's approach further implies that the two grammars are complementary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French

Palasis

2013

French Language Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article supports the diglossic approach to variation in metropolitan French by delving into the subject from the point of view of acquisition. Drawing on naturalistic data from 37 native French children between the ages of 2;3 and 4;0, the investigation exemplifies the existence of two cognate, but distinct grammars in the mind/brain of these children. The distinction between Spontaneous French (G1, all children) and Normed French (G2, 4 children by age 4) hinges upon two crucial characteristics, i.e. the morpho-syntactic status of nominative clitics and the emergence of the negative particlene. Accusative clitics with imperatives and past-participle agreement are also examined in order to gain a comprehensive picture of the two grammars. Finally, the emergence ofneis interpreted as a trigger forcing a speaker to move from G1to G2due to the total unavailability ofnein G1.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…This article aims to lend support to the French diglossia hypothesis ( Barra-Jover, 2004Rowlett, 2007;Massot, 2008Massot, , 2010Zribi-Hertz, 2011). Drawing on naturalistic data from native French children under 4, two cognate but distinct grammars are hence described by hinging upon two crucial distinctions, i.e.…”

Section: Conc Lu S I Onmentioning

confidence: 96%

The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French

Palasis

2013

French Language Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the light of the above data, it seems that Rooryck's (1994) approach, according to which est-ce que is a complex C 0 , is on the right track (cf. also Rowlett 2007). Such an analysis could explain the distribution of negative markers.…”

Section: French Est-ce Que Wh-questionsmentioning

confidence: 91%

‘Embu’ <i>Wh</i>- questions in Cypriot Greek: A comparative study

Kanikli

Tsoulas

2019

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper proposes a novel syntactic analysis for embu Whquestions in Cypriot Greek; a Whquestion variant which is similar to the est-ce que interrogatives in French and the é que interrogatives in European Portuguese. The paper examines properties of the embu questions which have not been addressed in the literature and investigates the asymmetries these interrogatives are assumed to display. Adopting a Split-CP analysis, we argue that embu is a Whhead; an analysis which accounts for the examined syntactic and semantic properties of these questions. Given the similarities of these structures to the é que interrogatives in European Portuguese and the est-ce que interrogatives in French, the paper reviews the disagreements in the literature with regards to the analysis of these Whquestions and explores whether the analysis that is proposed for embu questions could accommodate these data as well.

show abstract

“…11 11 The incompatibility of EECPPs with desire-like attitude verbs is noted by both Morin (1985:799) and Rowlett (2007). Both of these authors, however, attribute this incompatibility to the fact that EECPPs (called ''pro-sentences'' by Morin and ''pro-assertive-clauses'' by Rowlett) can substitute for indicative but not subjunctive clauses.…”

Section: Types Of Licensing Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase-Edge Features and the Syntax of Polarity Particles

Authier

2013

Linguistic Inquiry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, I argue that the phase edge in the C field shares features via Agree with an intermediate layer (FinP) and with a lower projection (⌺P), allowing it to determine the type of clause and its polarity. I adopt a feature-sharing relation of Agree that connects all of the polarity features present on heads (be they ⌺, Fin, and, in some cases, VFoc) to a polarity feature in Force, the relevant phase-edge position for clausal typing. This explains, among other things, why embedded clauses containing a polarity feature can only satisfy the selectional properties of a particular class of (matrix) verbs.(1) Q: Did Jason fall?A: Yes, he fell. AЈ: No, he didn't fall.(2) Q: Est-ce que Jason est tombé? A: Oui, il est tombé. AЈ: Non, il n'est pas tombé.(3) a. Je crois que oui/non. (Lit. I think that yes/no.) b. Peut-être que oui/non. (Lit. Maybe that yes/no.)(4) a. *I think that yes/no. (cf. I think so/not.) b. *Maybe that yes/no. (cf. Maybe so/not.)(5) a. Julie veut se marier, mais Anne, non. b. Julie n'aime pas les moules, mais les huîtres, oui/si.(6) a. ??Julie wants to get married, but Anne, no. (cf. . . . but Anne doesn't.) b. *Julie doesn't like mussels, but oysters, yes. (cf. . . . but she does oysters.)The article is organized as follows. In section 2, I give some background information about polarity particles in general, and English and French ones in particular. More specifically, I introduce several notions that are at the heart of the analysis defended here: relative and absolute polarity features (Farkas 2009), clausal typing (Cheng 1991), and the feature-sharing version of Agree argued for by Pesetsky and Torrego (2007). I conclude with a brief overview of how these notions can be used to account for the properties of English polarity particles and the ellipsis they sometimes license in echo assertions. In section 3, I first examine the distribution of polarity particles in elliptical embedded clauses and elliptical right conjuncts expressing contrastive polarity, and I argue that such particles lexicalize phase-edge clausal-typing features. I then address the question of why languages like French, Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian can effect clausal typing in embedded contexts via yes/no-type polarity particles but English cannot. This, I argue, follows from the inability of English-type languages to license embedded TP-ellipsis, leaving English with two options to express embedded polarity in a reduced form: so-pronominalization and VP-ellipsis. In section 4, I argue that the position of French polarity particles in the C field is the head of FinP, a projection that closes the C domain downward. I then show how the sharing version of Agree as applied to clausal-typing features explains how a French polarity particle located in Fin can inherit the ( positive or negative) value of Laka's (1990) ⌺ and ''pass it on'' to Force, allowing a matrix verb to ''see'' whether the clause it has merged with satisfies its selectional properties. In section 5, I consider special uses of French polarity particle...

show abstract

The Syntax of French

Cited by 115 publications

References 0 publications

The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French

The case for diglossia: Describing the emergence of two grammars in the early acquisition of metropolitan French

‘Embu’ <i>Wh</i>- questions in Cypriot Greek: A comparative study

Phase-Edge Features and the Syntax of Polarity Particles

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About