Contenu du sommaire : La prédication seconde, sous la direction de Pierre Cadiot et Naoyo Furukawa

Verbs expressing perceptual processes can take different types of object complement. Since perception verbs are known to be highly polysemous there could be a correlation between complement type and verb meaning. In the case of voir one of the relevant factors appears to be the grammatical category of the object complement : verbal complements tend to confine themselves to perceptual meaning; nominal complements, on the other hand, tend to express opinion. This correlation confirms and extends earlier analyses of adjectival complements. Furthermore, there seems to be a certain correlation with the form of the object complement, nominal complements preferring to be introduced by prepositions and the like (comme). These correlations are found not only in the case of voir, but also in the case of other perception verbs, which opens interesting perspectives for further research into the semantics of these verbs.

Adjectival attributive constructions are divided into inherent attributive constructions, and non inherent ones. Among these, we must distinguish between cases where verbs are understood as equivalent of operators, and cases where there remains only one explanation : the shared time of occurence. In all those structures, adjectives show original properties, that we could understand if we admit that such constructions are syntactically underdetermined.

This study is devoted to the so called narrative infinitive, a type of secundary predication charachterised by the partial specification of the predicative dimensions end the dependence of the left-hand context. This explains the presence of a junctor, the use of de as a marker of particularistion and the restricted distribution of accessory constituents.

This paper proposes an analysis of the sentence type « Je vois le facteur qui arrive » ("I see the mailman coming") and « Voilà le facteur qui arrive » ("There's the mailman coming") within the information-structure framework of Lambrecht 1994. It is argued that this sentence type belongs to a general presentational construction which is also instantiated by sentences like « J'ai mon beau-frère qui fume » ("My brother-in-law smokes") or « Y a le téléphone qui sonne » ("The phone is ringing"). In this construction, the main clause introduces a new discourse entity (semantic role "theme", pragmatic role "focus") by situating it in relation to an explicit or implicit reference point (semantic role "locative", pragmatic role "topic"), while the relative clause expresses some hitherto unknown property of this new entity via secondary predication. The possible coding of the theme argument in pronominal form, as in « Je le vois qui arrive » ("I see him coming") or « Le voilà qui arrive » ("There he is coming") is explained in terms of the possible passage of a given discourse entity from an internal to an external discourse world. clause expresses some hitherto unknown property of this new entity via secondary predication. The possible coding of the theme argument in pronominal form, as in « Je le vois qui arrive » ("I see him coming") or « Le voilà qui arrive » ("There he is coming") is explained in terms of the possible passage of a given discourse entity from an internal to an external discourse world.

It is shown that the two realizations of the French Verb avoir, so-called Predicative avoir, avoir v and so-called Possessive avoir, avoir г are both predicates, in fact two-places predicates, and not some forms of copulas. The difference between them is to be located on the level of the internal argument : for the first one it is categorized as a small-clause (SC),,and then we observe a secondary predication-like configuration, and for the second one - a DP. From here derives a différenciation regarding the reading of the predicate. Avoir is existential and assignats to its internal argument a prototypically eventive propositional content. Avoir г denotes a property state and may, with some restrictions which are summarized and explained, have a posséder paraphrazing. There is also an argument for strengthing the SC categorizing of the internal argument of the predicate avoir r

The present article proposes an analysis of the French present participle (the -ant form) as a converb, i.e. as a non-finite verb form which forms a secondary predication with a primary verb and the subject of this verb. Contrary to the gérondif (the en -ant form), which always denotes a situation which is contemporary with but distinct from the situation denoted by the primary verb, the present participle as a converb denotes either the same situation as the primary verb or a salient aspect of it. In the verbal couple, verb + converb, the converb most often carries the most important information, cf. the prototypical example : Elle s'est levée mettant fin à l'entretien.

This paper argues that sentences of the type Elle est là qui pleure represent a "spatially located theme" construction. Our analysis of the mechanism that produces this particular theme, consists crucially in the observation that the antecedent of the relative pronoun qui is not the subject Elle but, formally speaking, all the sequence that precedes it, that is, Elle est là ; in other words, the rôle of the relative pronoun qui in this construction resides in receiving a spatially located entity semantically from the sequence Elle est là and thematizing it.

The author shows that utterances such as Paul a frappé Jean au visage, Sylvie est jolie des yeux, Paul a été attaqué sur sa vie privée, (Paul struck Jean in the face, Sylvie has pretty eyes, Paul was attaqued on/for his private life) are cases of "double predication". He developes the hypothesis that this double predication is articulted according to a model background/figure and that the choice of prepositions corresponds to an instructional theory of their basic semantic structure.