Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T09:27:24.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Movement of negative adverbs in French infinitival clauses*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

France Martineau
France Martineau
Affiliation:
Département des lettres françaises, University of Ottawa, 165 Waller Street, Ottawa, Canada K1N 6N5.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the position of negative adverbs such as mie, pas, point and jamais in Middle and Classical French infinitival clauses. Instead of linking the movement of the infinitival verb to the strength of functional categories such as AGRℴ, I propose to link it to a parametric change of NEGP from strong to weak. Up to Classical French, the infinitival verb can move to AGRℴ because NEGP is strong; this movement of the infinitival verb to AGRℴ allows the movement of negative adverbs, which are base-generated in VP initial position. At the beginning of Classical French, a parametric change affected the strength of NEGP, from strong to weak. As a result of this parametric change, movement of the infinitival verb to AGRℴ becomes more limited. Moreover, the difference between pas and other negative adverbs is due to a change in the nature of pas, from an adverb base-generated in VP initial position which can move, to a fixed adverb base-generated in the specifier position of NEGP.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 55 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Baker, M. (1988). Incorporation: a Theory of Grammatical Function Changing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Battye, A. (1983). Particelle infinitivali in italiano e francese. Rivista di Grammatica Generativa, 8: 65–110.Google Scholar
Bauche, H. (1946). Le Langagepopulaire. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Belletti, A. (1990). Generalized Verb Movement: Aspect of Verb Syntax. Turin: Rosenberg.Google Scholar
Brunot, F. (1967). Histoire de la langue française, vol. 11. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Engver, K. (1972). Place de l'adverbe déterminant un infinitif dans la prose du français contemporain (Studia Romanica Uppsaliensia). Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Foulet, L. (1982). Petite Syntaxe de l'ancien français. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Gaatone, D. (1971). Étude descriptive du système de la négation en français contemporain. Geneva: Droz.Google Scholar
Gougenheim, G. (1984). Grammaire de la langue française du seizième siècle. Paris: Picard.Google Scholar
Haase, A. (1969). Syntaxe française du XVIIe siècle. Paris: Delagrave.Google Scholar
Huguet, E. (1967). Étude sur la syntaxe de Rabelais. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints.Google Scholar
Kayne, R. (1984a). Connectedness. In Kayne, R. (ed.), Connectedness and Binary Branching. Dordrecht: Foris, 165–192.Google Scholar
Kayne, R. (1984b). On certain differences between French and English. In Kayne, R. (ed.), Connectedness and Binary Branching. Dordrecht: Foris, 103–123.Google Scholar
Kayne, R. (1989). Null subjects and clitic climbing. In Jaeggli, O. and Safir, K. J. (eds.) The Null Subject Parameter. Amsterdam: Reidel, 239–261.Google Scholar
Koopman, H. and Sportiche, D. (1985). Theta theory and extraction. GLOW Newsletter, 14: 57–58.Google Scholar
Leake, Roy E. (1981). Concordance de Montaigne. Geneva: Droz.Google Scholar
Marchello-Nizia, C. (1979). Histoire de la langue française aux XIVe et XVe siècles. Paris: Bordas.Google Scholar
Martin, R. (1972). La ‘négation de virtualité’ du moyen français. Romania, 93: 20–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R. and Wilmet, M. (1980). Manuel du français du moyen âge: Syntaxe du moyen français. Bordeaux: Sobodi.Google Scholar
Martineau, F. (1990). La montée du clitique en moyen français: une étude de la syntaxe des constructions infinitives. Ph.D dissertation: University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
Moignet, G. (1965). L'opposition non/ne en ancien français. Travauxde linguistiqueet de littérature, 3: 41–65.Google Scholar
Moignet, G. (1981). Grammaire de l'ancien français. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Ouhalla, J. (1990). Sentential negation, relativized minimality and the aspectual status of auxiliaries. The Linguistic Review, 7: 183–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, E. (1991). Tense and negation: competing analyses in Middle French. Parasession on Negation, CLS.Google Scholar
Pollock, J.-Y. (1989). Verb movement, universal grammar and the structure of IP. Linguistic Inquiry, 20: 365–424.Google Scholar
Rowlett, P. (1991). On the D-Structure position of negative sentence adverbials in French. Working Papers in Language and Linguistics, University of Salford.Google Scholar
Rowlett, P. (1993). On the syntactic derivation of negative sentence adverbials. Journal of French Language Studies, 3: 39–69.Google Scholar
Sportiche, D. (1988). A theory of floating quantifiers and its corollaries for constituent structure. Linguistic Inquiry, 19: 425–449.Google Scholar
Travis, L. (1988). The syntax of adverbs. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics, Special Issue on Comparative Germanic Syntax, 280–310.Google Scholar
Yvon, H. (1948). Pas et point dans les propositions négatives. Le Francais Moderne, 16: 19–35.Google Scholar
Zanuttini, R. (1991). Syntactic properties of sentential negation: a comparative study of Romance languages. Ph.D dissertation: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar

Collected Texts

Middle French to sixteenth-century French

Anonymous, Les XV Joies de manage. Geneva: Droz, 1963.Google Scholar
Anonymous, Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. Geneva: Droz, 1966.Google Scholar
Cartier, Jacques, Voyages au Canada. Paris: François Maspéro, La Découverte, 1981 (111–156).Google Scholar
Commynes, Philippe de, Mémoires, in Historiens et chroniqueurs du moyen âge. Paris: La Pléiade, 1952 (949–1106).Google Scholar
Des Périers, Bonaventure, Les Nouvelles Recreations et joyeux devis. Paris: La Pléiade, 1965 (365–594).Google Scholar
Froissart, , Jean, , Chroniques, in Historiens et chroniqueurs du moyen âge. Paris: La Pléiade, 1952 (373–481).Google Scholar
Montaigne, Michel de, Essais, vol. 1. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1965.Google Scholar
Navarre, Marguerite de, L'Heptaméron, in Conteurs français du XVIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1965 (701–824).Google Scholar
Vigneulles, Philippe de, Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. Geneva: Droz, 1972.Google Scholar
Diderot, , Denis, , Voyage en Hollande. Paris: François Maspéro, La Découverte, 1982 (23–43).Google Scholar
Furetière, Antoine, Le Roman bourgeois, in Romanciers du XVIIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1962 (900–983).Google Scholar
Lafayette, , comtesse, , La Princesse de Clèves, in Romanciers du XVIIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1962.Google Scholar
Lesage, Alain-René, Le Diable boiteux. La Haye: Mouton, 1970.Google Scholar
Lesage, Alain-René, Gil Bias de Santillane, in Romanciers du XVIIIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1960 (491–1197).Google Scholar
Prévost, abbé, Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut, in Romanciers du XVIIIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1960 (1217–1371).Google Scholar
Scarron, , Paul, , Le Romant comique, m Romanciers du XVIIe siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1962 (531–638).Google Scholar
Sévigné, madame de, Correspondance I (March 1646–July 1675). Paris: La Pléiade, 1972 (7–121).Google Scholar
Sorel, , Charles, , Histoire comique de Francion, in Romanciers du XVIIe. siècle. Paris: La Pléiade, 1962 (61–263).Google Scholar
Voltaire, , Candide ou l'optimisme, Paris: Nizet, 1979.Google Scholar
Hugo, , Victor, , Le Dernier Jour d'un condamné. Paris: Livre de poche.Google Scholar
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de, Le Petit Prince. Paris: Livre de poche.Google Scholar
Simenon, , Georges, , L'Amie de Madame Maigret. Paris: Presses de la Cité.Google Scholar
Simenon, , Georges, , Le Chien jaune. Paris: Presses Pocket.Google Scholar
Vallès, Jules, L'Enfant. Paris: Gamier Flammarion.Google Scholar
Zola, , Émile, , Germinal. Paris: Livre de Poche.Google Scholar