Sur La Sémantique Des Descriptions Demonstratives

The purpose of this paper is to show that it could be advantageous to analyse a demonstrative description of the type Ce + N as an abbreviated form of a presupposed Ce + est +N attributive and classifying structure.This notion offers the advantage of accounting for the basic semantic properties of the demonstrative description. It also provides a firm basis to analyse the various ways of using demonstrative adjectives. Attention is focused on three points in the paper:i) The semantic content of the demonstrative adjective and demonstrative pronoun ce,ii) The presupposition implied in classifying deictic predication,iii) The partitive aspect of the quantifying operation carried out by the demonstrative adjective.