Contenu du sommaire : Grammaire des sentiments, sous la direction de Antoinette Balibar-Mrabti

It is incorrect to attribute a particular Deep Structure or special theta roles to these constructions because they are very productive. Moreover, the Experiencer and Theme can hold many different Grammatical Functions, so that a transformational analysis based on regularities of theta assignment cannot be maintained. It is proposed that the peculiarities of these constructions are not due to special syntactic properties, but rather to the fact that one of the arguments is a psy-chose , which receives a particular type of referential interpretation in mental space.

Psychological constructions in French typically exclude the subject's control of the psychological process that affects the direct object. This important factor in the analysis of these verbs corresponds with a position on a continuum that can be used to characterize verbs semantically. The continuum describes the relationship between the subject and the direct object in terms of the increasing level of closeness that can exist between them in the course of an event. Most verbs can occupy a number of positions on this continuum. The psychological interpretation of many action verbs is possible only when this relationship does not imply the control of the process affecting the direct object. When there is control, we usually encounter an agentive interpretation, which can be, sometimes, psychological. This article shows that psychological verbs are not a separate class, as their semantic behaviour overlaps with that of a large number of verbs that are not psychological.

Since the beginnings of Generative Grammar, most linguists have taken it for granted that Experiencer-Object verbs can be interpreted as agentive. Recently, Jan van Voorst has questioned that assumption : agentivity means control of the object by the subject ; such a control is lacking in the case of E₀- verbs. Taking into account the heterogeneity of the E₀-class, I will reformulate Voorst's findings in terms of intentionality. The object of E₀-verbs is an intentional subject (IS). Individual E₀-verbs differ in that some of them (amuse) allow their subject to be interpreted as an IS, while others (preoccupy) do not allow it. Moreover, some verbs (terrorize, humiliate) come close to being interpreted as agentive verbs.

Among the so-called "psych-nouns", feelings and attitudes represent an intuitive point of view. In fact, a more careful examination of their linguistic properties clearly shows that such notions as feelings and attitudes might very well be unfounded linguistically speaking. This paper is an attempt to establish such a classification on aspectual grounds, in terms of event representation. Another claim is that morphology is relevant, that is noun and adjective formation give some access to the event representation above mentioned.

Fear and anger are usually classified as "nouns of feeling", but whereas it is possible to say Max est en colère we cannot say Max est en peur : we could then propose the hypothesis according to which/èar and anger do not refer to the same type of feeling. Rather than trying to define the noun, it seems more appropriate to characterize the structure in which it occurs : so we propose a hypothesis for the construction be in N which takes into consideration its two constituents in and be. It allows us to explain why a definite list of nouns can appear in this context. The criteria generally advanced to define a class "nouns of feeling" are then questioned. according to which/èar and anger do not refer to the same type of feeling. Rather than trying to define the noun, it seems more appropriate to characterize the structure in which it occurs : so we propose a hypothesis for the construction be in N which takes into consideration its two constituents in and be. It allows us to explain why a definite list of nouns can appear in this context. The criteria generally advanced to define a class "nouns of feeling" are then questioned.

We present the grammar of a set of sentences that express "feelings". We consider two main types : sentences with two arguments, one is a person and the other is the "feeling" affecting this person. We study all syntactic patterns that correspond to such semantically defined utterances. The second type of sentences is causative with respect to the preceding one, hence a third argument is introduced : the noun phrase that triggers the "feeling". We study again the syntactic patterns available in French to express this situation and the syntactic transformations that relate both types.

The aim of this paper is to establish a list of "nouns of feeling" within the theory of support verbs of Zellig Harris and to construct a lexicon-grammar expressing "feelings". We study in simple sentences combinatorial constraints between these nouns and specific verbs, which we have also listed. We consider two syntactic positions : subject and complement. About thirty nouns combine with about sixty verbs. We pay a particular attention to a relation between causative sentences and sentences with an "instrumental" complement.

FEELING is a system for understanding French psychological verbs. Given a sentence with such a verb, we examine how to infer the semantics of the subject and of the object. We describe the knowledge representation used by FEELING. The semantic interpretation is given by production rules like .

Working for the argument structure (the case frame) of the superordinate predicate "fear", the authors of this article show how the constructions of the various phrases coming under this general heading (wether based on a verb, a noun or an adjective) are realized at surface structure level. They end with a comparison with similar phrases in german/

In this paper, the author studies the polysemic word cœur (heart) in the French lexicon. The author discusses various synchronic definitions given by Jean Dubois and Igor Melc'uk and presents her own lexicographic treatment within the approach of Gustave Guillaume. She concludes on unavoidable complexity for such polysémie words. The structure of a noun such as cœur cannot be reproduced for other items. There are two types of descriptions of these "semantic archetypes" : the analytical one which leads to formal treatments and the synthetic one which leads to systematic teaching of the vocabulary of languages.