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The Semantics of Dynamic Space in French: Descriptive, experimental and formal studies on motion expression
Edited by Michel Aurnague and Dejan Stosic
[Human Cognitive Processing 66] 2019
► pp. 110–138

From il s’envole hors to il sort du nid

A typological change in French motion expressions

| Lattice, CNRS, ENS & Université Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle; PSL & USPC, France

In this chapter, I describe the evolution from Latin to French, focusing on a specific typological change: that from a Satellite-framed to a Verb-framed language, in the (much debated) dichotomy established by Talmy (1985). The goal of the paper is to describe in detail the loss, between Medieval and Modern French, of one important feature of Satellite-framed languages: Satellites. In order to do this, I rely on a quantitative and qualitative diachronic corpus study of a series of adverbs with particle uses in Medieval French, following their decline throughout the diachrony of French. I describe the uses of these adverbs and their gradual disappearance, which has left room for other spatial grams, mainly adpositions.

Keywords: particles, adpositions, typology, diachrony, corpus, spatial grams
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.State of the art: Motion event descriptions in Latin and Medieval French
  • 3.Theoretical framework and methodology
    • 3.1Corpus
    • 3.2Particles
    • 3.3Noise
    • 3.4Semantics and morpho-syntax
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Global evolution
    • 4.2Step by step: From Old French to Modern French
      • 4.2.1Old French (950–1350)
      • 4.2.2Middle French (1351–1550)
      • 4.2.3Preclassical and Classical French (1551–1800)
      • 4.2.4Modern French (1801–2013)
    • 4.3Microconstructions
  • 5.Discussion: A global replacement of spatial grams?
    • 5.1The “satellite” microconstruction
    • 5.2Semantic bleaching and grammaticalization
    • 5.3Lexicalization and productivity
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
  • Databases
  • Appendix
Published online: 29 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.66.03fag
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