Problèmes de linguistique générale
About: This article is published in Language.The article was published on 1968-03-01. It has received 1838 citations till now.
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TL;DR: The authors explored from a broadly qualitative, non-variationist perspective, and within the context of Brown and Levinson's politeness theory, how speakers can exploit the indeterminacy of pronominal reference and in particular that of the French indeterminate pronoun on in the interests of face protection.
Abstract: The fact that the subject clitic on has such a wide range of referential values has been studied extensively, in particular from a variationist perspective. Quantitative methods have been used (e.g. Laberge and Sankoff, 1980) to establish correlations between, on the one hand, on and its paradigmatic ‘equivalents’ tu and vous and, on the other, a number of linguistic, discoursal and social variables. Indeed, pragmatic factors figure increasingly prominently amongst investigated constraints on use and interpretation. It is the aim of this paper to explore, from a broadly qualitative, non-variationist perspective, and within the context of Brown and Levinson's ‘Politeness Theory’ (1978, 1987), how speakers can exploit the indeterminacy of pronominal reference and in particular that of the French indeterminate pronoun on in the interests of face protection.
24 citations
TL;DR: A network of voices that not only speak, but also struggle and resist for humanity has been proposed in this paper, where the authors describe a network of "not only speaking but also resisting for humanity".
Abstract: Let it be a network of voices … A network of voices that not only speak, but also struggle and resist for humanity.
24 citations
TL;DR: The issue of the universality of tag functions is taken up by looking at the uses of tags in spontaneous speech in Mohawk, which shows differences can be seen to emerge from the common modal/interactive function, plus a deeper commonality, the propensity of speakers to exploit available linguistic resources for creative expression.
24 citations
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TL;DR: This article proposed a rule of Situation Economy, which holds that structures must have the fewest number of situation pronouns possible, such that strong DPs require a situation pronoun to receive a de re reading, which supersedes Situation Economy in this case.
Abstract: Researchers often assume that possible worlds and times are represented in the syntax of natural languages. However, it has been noted that such a system can overgenerate. This paper proposes a constraint on systems where worlds and times are represented as situation pronouns. The Intersective Predicate Generalization, based on and extending work by R. Musan, states that two items composed via Predicate Modification, such as a noun and an intersective modifier, must be evaluated in the same world and time. To explain this generalization, a rule of Situation Economy is advanced, which holds that structures must have the fewest number of situation pronouns possible. Since strong DPs require a situation pronoun to receive a de re reading, a restriction on the type of strong determiners is proposed, which supersedes Situation Economy in this case. Finally, the paper shows how the Situation Economy approach explains an unrelated phenomenon involving bare plurals and examines the connection between this new rule and the grammar of natural language in general.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the subject of construction NOM and construction PROP is clausal and the topmost XP of the subject phrase of both constructions contains a null neuter element.
Abstract: Having shown how Construction NOM and Construction PROP differ, I demonstrate that the subject of Construction PROP is clausal. I argue that the topmost XP of the subject phrase of both constructions contains a null neuter element. This accounts for the neuter predicative agreement; hence the idea of default agreement or semantic agreement can be dismissed. I also argue that the subject in (ii) contains a nu P, the head of which is a null light verb. Other instances of null light verbs in Swedish are identified too. Finally, I propose an analysis that accounts for the close relation between Construction PROP and the corresponding construction with a med-phrase 'with -phrase'.
24 citations
Cites background from "Problèmes de linguistique générale"
...It is well known that the verb ha ‘have’ and the preposition med ‘with’ are closely related (see Benveniste 1966, Kayne 1993)....
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