Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais

This article examines the noncanonical structure known as the locative inversion, which can be described as : < Constituent1 C1 (fronted locative expression) + verb V + Constituent2 C2 (postposed subject) >. There are two general types of constraints regulating this structure : on the one hand...

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Main Author: Gérard MÉLIS
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2013-12-01
Series:E-REA
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3597
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author Gérard MÉLIS
author_facet Gérard MÉLIS
author_sort Gérard MÉLIS
collection DOAJ
description This article examines the noncanonical structure known as the locative inversion, which can be described as : < Constituent1 C1 (fronted locative expression) + verb V + Constituent2 C2 (postposed subject) >. There are two general types of constraints regulating this structure : on the one hand, the construction is said to be constrained by the verb which must be unaccusative, and, on the other hand, the locative inversion seems to be regulated by some principles of information packaging (in this respect, the fronted location is thematic while the postposed subject is focalized) and by the fact that the verb involved must be semantically light. This article discusses these two analyses (the syntactic analysis of unaccusativity, the discursive analysis developed in terms of information structure). Unaccusativity is problematic as a consistent category, and the postposed subject is not always focalized new information while the fronted location is not systematically given information. My aim is to show that the semantic relationship between the fronted location C1 and the verb is a significant parameter as far as the acceptability of the locative inversion is concerned. In this respect, there are two cases : a/ the location is an argument of the verb, b/ there is a tight relationship between the verb and the locative constituent.
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spelling doaj-art-f78089e700834d9daf738f4e607a92602025-01-09T12:54:10ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182013-12-0111110.4000/erea.3597Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglaisGérard MÉLISThis article examines the noncanonical structure known as the locative inversion, which can be described as : < Constituent1 C1 (fronted locative expression) + verb V + Constituent2 C2 (postposed subject) >. There are two general types of constraints regulating this structure : on the one hand, the construction is said to be constrained by the verb which must be unaccusative, and, on the other hand, the locative inversion seems to be regulated by some principles of information packaging (in this respect, the fronted location is thematic while the postposed subject is focalized) and by the fact that the verb involved must be semantically light. This article discusses these two analyses (the syntactic analysis of unaccusativity, the discursive analysis developed in terms of information structure). Unaccusativity is problematic as a consistent category, and the postposed subject is not always focalized new information while the fronted location is not systematically given information. My aim is to show that the semantic relationship between the fronted location C1 and the verb is a significant parameter as far as the acceptability of the locative inversion is concerned. In this respect, there are two cases : a/ the location is an argument of the verb, b/ there is a tight relationship between the verb and the locative constituent.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3597discourse analysissyntactic inversionlocative inversionunaccusativityinformation structure
spellingShingle Gérard MÉLIS
Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
E-REA
discourse analysis
syntactic inversion
locative inversion
unaccusativity
information structure
title Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
title_full Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
title_fullStr Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
title_full_unstemmed Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
title_short Analyse de la composante sémantique lexicale de l’inversion locative en anglais
title_sort analyse de la composante semantique lexicale de l inversion locative en anglais
topic discourse analysis
syntactic inversion
locative inversion
unaccusativity
information structure
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/3597
work_keys_str_mv AT gerardmelis analysedelacomposantesemantiquelexicaledelinversionlocativeenanglais