| Titre | La genèse de l'article un | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Anne Carlier | |
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Revue | Langue française |
| Numéro | no 130, mai 2001 La linguistique diachronique : grammaticalisation et sémantique du prototype, sous la direction de Walter De Mulder et Anne Vanderheyden | |
| Page | 65-88 | |
| Résumé anglais |
On the basis of texts from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, this paper traces the different stages of the evolution of the form stemming from the latin numeral unus, before it became part of the system of the French articles. It particularly takes into account those texts which allow us to compare different stages of the language, such as the reworkings in Middle French of texts in Old French, as well as successive versions of the same latin text. The description of this evolution, in terms of a grammaticalization proces, shows the differences between the initial stages and later ones. The article uns in Old French is the result of a proces of semantic enrichment: a new textual role, the introduction of a new referent in the text, has been superimposed on its ancient numeral meaning. From Middle French on, the article un undergoes a proces of semantic weakening, which is conditioned by the process of integration into the paradigm of the articles: on the one hand, the idea of the "countable singular", which will bring the article un into contrast with the articles du and des, develops out of the numeral meaning; on the other hand, as opposed to the article le, the textual function is redefined as absence of an anaphoric link. The article also looks into the plural forms of the article un, which have disappeared in the Middle French period. It is shown that the cause of the disappearance of these plural forms is not semantic, but phonetic. as the reworkings in Middle French of texts in Old French, as well as successive versions of the same latin text. The description of this evolution, in terms of a grammaticalization proces, shows the differences between the initial stages and later ones. The article uns in Old French is the result of a proces of semantic enrichment: a new textual role, the introduction of a new referent in the text, has been superimposed on its ancient numeral meaning. From Middle French on, the article un undergoes a proces of semantic weakening, which is conditioned by the process of integration into the paradigm of the articles: on the one hand, the idea of the "countable singular", which will bring the article un into contrast with the articles du and des, develops out of the numeral meaning; on the other hand, as opposed to the article le, the textual function is redefined as absence of an anaphoric link. The article also looks into the plural forms of the article un, which have disappeared in the Middle French period. It is shown that the cause of the disappearance of these plural forms is not semantic, but phonetic. Source : Éditeur (via Persée) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.persee.fr/doc/lfr_0023-8368_2001_num_130_1_1027 |
