Lingvisticæ Investigationes - Volume 29, Issue 2, 2006

This paper relates to temporal adjectives mainly in French and Hungarian. After a short presentation of the difference between adjectives and nouns, we show that adjectives can express two different types of manifestations of linguistic time : one defines the notion of outside time vs. inside time and interior temporal structure (or aspect which refers to the course of the action) vs. external temporal structure (as defined by the circumstantial complements and verbal tenses). We define then the concept of the temporal adjective and we present a semantic description : these adjectives can refer to a temporal field (past, present, future), to indicate a duration (1) which we can delimit in time or (2) which we cannot delimit in time (cf. french millénaire vs. long). Others refer to a point in time (french pascal). The temporal value of the last two groups is already used in extreme cases of primary temporality : french neuf and valide. The conclusion of a theoretical nature with a few examples is followed by a table which shows the main groups of temporal adjectives.

This paper deals with reduction in Arabic. It attempts to give evidence that the phenomena goes beyond the simple cases of isolated word deletion. In this order, data, relating to deverbal, appropriate and classifier noun constructions, are examined. Reconstructed sequences are established and, in almost all situations, summed up in equivalent reduced ones. This gives place to some kind of information, with neither loss, nor redundancy.

Taking as a starting point one of P. Sabatier’s work on the Lexicon-Grammar of football, we present the phrases we have established and translated for the Greek language (Ph-foot). We have retained the classes of objects established by P. Sabatier for French. For the Greek study our point of departure is a selection of 600 sentences. We have established not only a lexicon-grammar but also a list of classes of objects and compound nouns of this vocabulary.The aim of this analysis was to describe morphosyntactic similarities as well as differences between simple sentence constructions and compound nouns in both languages. This study will serve as a basis for future comparative studies wich will ultimately serve to support automatic translation.