1887
Volume 39, Issue 2
  • ISSN 0378-4169
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9927
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

The indefinite plural article in medieval French conjoins the features of unity and plurality. Because of its grammatical nature, is not restricted to lexical plurals, but combines in a productive way to nouns having a regular singular-plural alternation in order to create a complex referent not reducible to the sum of its components. Moreover, expresses not only quantitative unity ‘one single N’, but also qualitative unity ‘one same N’ and is not linked to lexical plurality in the latter case. Since its features of unity and plurality are considered as incompatible, plural indefinite articles have been assumed to emerge in an advanced stage of grammaticalization, when the numeral source meaning is bleached out, and to be not viable over time. Both hypotheses were invalidated in the present study.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/li.39.2.06car
2017-03-20
2025-04-27
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Acquaviva, P
    (2008) Lexical plurals. A morphosemantic approach. Oxford: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Buridant, C
    (2000) Grammaire nouvelle de l’ancien français. Paris: SEDES.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. (2015) Unes manieres de … L’indéfini pluriel uns/unes en français médiéval : nouvel aperçu en perspective romane », In R. Bellon (Ed.), Études de linguistique médiévale. Hommage à Ambroise Jean-Marc Queffélec (pp.61–76). Bern: Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Booij, G
    (1994) Against split morphology. Yearbook of Morphology 1993, 27–50.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Carlier, A
    (2001) La genèse de l’article un . Langue française, 130, 65–88. doi: 10.3406/lfr.2001.1027
    https://doi.org/10.3406/lfr.2001.1027 [Google Scholar]
  6. (2007) From preposition to article: The grammaticalization of the French partitive. Studies in Language, 31, 1–49. doi: 10.1075/sl.31.1.02car
    https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.31.1.02car [Google Scholar]
  7. (2013) Grammaticalization in progress in old French: Indefinite articles. In D. Arteaga (Ed.), Research on old French: The state of the art (pp.45–60). Dordrecht: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978‑94‑007‑4768‑5_3
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4768-5_3 [Google Scholar]
  8. Carlier, A. , & Combettes B
    (2015) Typologie et catégorisation morphosyntaxique: du latin au français moderne. Langue française, 187,15–58. doi: 10.3917/lf.187.0015
    https://doi.org/10.3917/lf.187.0015 [Google Scholar]
  9. Collin, M
    (1982) L’article indéfini dans la traduction par Jean d’Antioche du ‘De Inventione’ de Cicéron. Master Thesis., Univ. of Leuven.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Corbett, G
    (2000) Number. Cambridge: CUP. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139164344
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139164344 [Google Scholar]
  11. Fischer, O
    (2000) Grammaticalization: Uni-directional, non-reversable. In O. Fischer , A. Rosenbach , & D. Stein (Eds.), Pathways of change (pp.149–169). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/slcs.53.08fis
    https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.53.08fis [Google Scholar]
  12. Foulet, L
    (1998) Petite Syntaxe de l'ancien Français (3e éd.). Paris: Champion.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Geisler, H
    (1982) Studien zur typologischen Entwicklung: Lateinisch, Altfranzösisch, Neufranzösisch. München: Fink.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Givón, T
    (1981) On the development of the numeral ‘one’ as an indefinite marker. Folia Linguistica Historica, 2(1), 35–53. doi: 10.1515/flih.1981.2.1.35
    https://doi.org/10.1515/flih.1981.2.1.35 [Google Scholar]
  15. Gréa, Ph
    (2013) Deux-trois mots sur les déterminants de petite quantité: pluriel continu et perception sémantique. Journal of French Language Studies, 23, 193–219. doi: 10.1017/S0959269512000191
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959269512000191 [Google Scholar]
  16. Guillaume, G
    (1969) Langage et science du langage. Paris: Nizet.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Haspelmath, M
    (1999) Why is grammaticalization irreversible?Linguistics, 37, 1043–1068. doi: 10.1515/ling.37.6.1043
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.37.6.1043 [Google Scholar]
  18. Heine, B
    (1997) Indefinite articles. In B. Heine (Ed.), Cognitive foundations of grammar (pp.66–82). Oxford: OUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Herslund, M
    (2003) Le pluriel de l’article indéfini en ancien français. In P. Blumenthal , & J-E. Tyvaert (Eds.), La Cognition dans le temps (pp.75–84). Tübingen: Niemeyer.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Hopper, P. J. , & Traugott, E. C
    (1993) Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Laca, B. , & Tasmowski, L
    (1994) Référentialité du pluriel indéfini dans les langues romanes. Faits de langues, 4, 97–104. doi: 10.3406/flang.1994.944
    https://doi.org/10.3406/flang.1994.944 [Google Scholar]
  22. Lambrecht, K
    (1986) Topic, focus, and the grammar of spoken French. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Lauwers, P
    (2014) Les pluriels ‘lexicaux’. Typologie quantifiée des déficits de dénombrabilité. Langue française, 183, 117–132. doi: 10.3917/lf.183.0117
    https://doi.org/10.3917/lf.183.0117 [Google Scholar]
  24. Lehmann, C
    (1982) Thoughts on grammaticalization. München, Newcastle: Lincom.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Marchello-Nizia, C
    (1997) La langue française aux XIVe et XVe siècles. Paris: Colin.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Pinkster, H
    (1988) Sicut unus pater familias: opmerkingen over het gebruik van ille en unus in verband met de ontwikkeling in de Romaanse talen. (www.harmpinkster.nl/files/articles/Sicut_unus_pater_familias_(1988).pdf)
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Prévost, S
    (2003) La grammaticalisation: unidirectionnalité et statut. Le français moderne, 71, 144–166.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. (2015) Recul de la non-expression et de l’inversion du sujet pronominal du 12e au 14e siècle. In A. Carlier , M. Goyens , & B. Lamiroy (Eds.), Le français en diachonie (pp.431–460). Bern: Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Quine, W.V.O
    (1960) Word and object. Cambridge Ms.: MIT Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Ramat, P
    (1992) Thoughts on degrammaticalization. Linguistics, 30, 549–560. doi: 10.1515/ling.1992.30.3.549
    https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1992.30.3.549 [Google Scholar]
  31. Wierzbicka, A
    (1988) Oats and wheat: The fallacy of arbitrariness. In Wierzbicka, A . (Ed.), The semantics of grammar (pp.499–560). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/slcs.18
    https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.18 [Google Scholar]
  32. Winter-Froemel, E.
    (2012) Les changements sémantiques et les ambiguïtés au niveau du discours: l’exemple du fr. on, Actes du CMLF2012, pp.247–259.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Woledge, B.
    (1956) The plural of the indefinite article in Old French. Modern Language Review51, 17–32. doi: 10.2307/3718256
    https://doi.org/10.2307/3718256 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/li.39.2.06car
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/li.39.2.06car
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): grammaticalization; indefinite article; lexical plural
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error