Contenu du sommaire : L'ordre des mots, sous la direction de Henning Nølke et Hanne Korzen

« World Order, Order within the Words » Instead of being thought of as an inherent property of morphemes, linearity should be derived from a lexical state where phonological primes are only related to each other via attenance (unoriented adjacency). It is shown that order within words can be construed as an effect of phonology. However, such a phonological process sometimes interprets syntactic configurations. Hence the interaction between phonological ordering (order within words) and syntactic ordering (word order) is also explored in this paper. Cliticisation, it is argued, may represent the maximal relevance of phonological ordering, whereas syntactic (external) ordering effects may in turn be embedded within phonological domains (compound tenses).

Where to place the attributive adjective in French ? Focalisation and modularity More than 450 years of research have shown that the placement of the French attributive adjective — before or after its substantive — is governed by a huge number of apparently disparate factors. This paper argues that a cogent theory of focalisation can explain a large scale of facts which hitherto been regarded as non-related. Conceived of as a component of a linguistic modular model, focalisation theory may thus contribute to yielding valuable new insight into the complex mechanisms underlying word order even at the phrase level.

« Positioning the non-clitic subject in inverse constructions » Hanne Korzen's article discusses a previously unsolved problem concerning the position of non-clitic subjects in sentences with inverted word order. The difference between sentences like Que dira ton frère à sa petite amie ? (acceptable) and Quand écrira ton frère à sa petite amie ? (unacceptable) seem to indicate that the nature of the clement positioned finally cannnot alone explain acceptability. Instead, an explanation may be found in the relation between the pre-verbal and the post-verbal constituent. A model is proposed to elucidate inverted word order in French and to make comparisons with related languages.

« Textual and semantic factors in word order. The case of detached constructions » This paper deals with the characteristics of the « construtions détachées » (CD) (adjectival phrases or participial phrases functioning as adjuncts), and examines the two interacting and functionally motivated principles which determine the placement of the constituent in clause-first position : a textual constraint (the CD as a marker of topic continuity), a semantic constraint (the CD as the reduction of a circumstancial clause) ; from a diachronic point of view, the progressive decay of these two principles is considered in the light of the development of a new conception of the sentence.

« The place of the subjective complement and its evolution in 12th and 13th centuries in French » The aim of this paper is to answer two questions : did the position of adjective complement change during the 12th and 13th centuries ? Is this evolution of the same type as the evolution of nominal object ? The two evolutions are mainly the same ; we have noted therefore some differences. During the period of Old French, adjective complements show a tendency to greater cohesion (Moût est granz —* II est tres-grant). The aim of this paper is to answer two questions : did the position of adjective complement change during the 12th and 13th centuries ? Is this evolution of the same type as the evolution of nominal object ? The two evolutions are mainly the same ; we have noted therefore some differences. During the period of Old French, adjective complements show a tendency to greater cohesion (Moût est granz —* II est tres-grant).

« Three remarks on word order in spoken French » To study word order in spoken French, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels : 1° word order as actualised in the process of enunciation, with its repetitions and hesitations, 2° the grammatical order of phrases, which is an abstract reconstruction. Some types of phrase order are more frequent in spoken than in written French ; this is the case of the structure in which a complement comes before its verb, which is particularly frequent in French in spite of what traditional French grammarians lead us to believe. In this position, the complement is strongly focalised and has particular semantic and syntactic properties which bring about a contrast with the phrase coming after the verb. French speakers often use this double possibility in the form of structural chiasmus.