Cette étude sur les propositions (clauses) introduites par "quand" s’ancre dans une démarche descriptive qui se veut à l’interface entre syntaxe, sémantique et discours. Il s’agit donc dans un premier temps de définir des critères permettant de rendre compte de la syntaxe particulièrement variable de cette structure introduite par quand. Nous nous sommes inspirée des travaux de Smessaert et al. (2005) pour la distinction entre micro- et macro-syntaxe et Berrendonner & Reichler-Béguelin (1989), Berrendonner (1990) et Béguelin (2004) pour la description macro-syntaxique. L’utilisation des ces outils de descriptions nous a permis de sortir de la dichotomie traditionnelle (hypotaxe vs parataxe) par l’intégration d’un niveau intermédiaire (exotaxe, épitaxe et endotaxe) afin d’élaborer un continuum scalaire d’intégration de la clause introduite par "quand", sur l’exemple de ce que propose Lehmann (1988). Ce continuum d’intégration présente une double orientation de l’intégration : de la coalescence au dégroupage et inversement. Ce continuum d’intégration syntaxique de la clause introduite par quand est corroboré par l’interprétation plus ou moins subjective de cette même clause. Nous souhaitons que ce travail soit à l’origine d’une étude plus vaste sur les intégrateurs temporels en français (cependant, alors, en même temps, à ce moment-là etc.) afin de vérifier la constance prévisible de certains phénomènes. / Our study about the "Quand-p" (When-clause) in modern French settles in a descriptive approach in the interlacing of syntax, semantic and discourse. Therefore we first needed to define a criteria that could debrief the variability of the Quand-p syntax. We found inspiration in the interlaced work of Smessaert et al. (2005), for the difference between micro- and macro-syntax, and of Berrendonner & Reichler-Béguelin (1989), Berrendonner (1990) and Béguelin (2004) for the macro-syntax analysis. Using these analysis tools allowed us to leave the traditional dichotomy (hypotaxis vs parataxis) by means of integration of an intermediate level (exotaxis, epitaxis and endotaxis) to elaborate a continuing integration scale of the "Quand-p", based on the example given by Lehmann (1988). This integration scale presents two directions: from coalescence to unbundling and vice versa.This syntactic integration scale introduced by the Quand-p is corroborated by its more or less subjective interpretation. We hope for this work to be at the origin of a larger study of the temporal integrator in French (cependant, alors, en même temps, à ce moment-là etc.) in order to verify the predictable constancy of certain phenomena.

This diploma thesis deals with the semantics of Dutch adjectives, their categorization and internal classification. The first section observes and analyses the criteria for delimiting adjectives as an independent word class and establishing adjectival subcategories, as dictated by the most influential Dutch grammar publications. One key area of focus is the concept of gradability and its role in delimiting and classifying adjectives. These definitions and classifications are confronted using the scalar approach, according to which adjectives represent a scale of properties and may be sorted depending on which type of scale they express. The practical section comprises a corpus study whose aim is to examine the validity of the assumptions formulated in the theoretical introduction regarding the gradability of adjectives. Using a sample of 100 adjectival lemmas with the lowest coefficient value for the likelihood of gradability, acquired from the Dutch language corpora CGN and SoNaR, the study follows a set of morphological, syntactic, semantic and discourse variables which may warrant the use of the comparative or superlative even with adjectives which are generally considered to be ungradable. The results of the analysis suggest that it is more appropriate to regard gradability as a statistical...

<p>English noun phrases (NP) which include degree modified adjectives show some interesting variation of the position of the indefinite article. A particularly salient pattern is displayed in <em>This is anticipated to be <strong>more common a scenario</strong> than fleas spreading bubonic plague </em>(BoE, BU-NX022521)<em>.</em> The present paper is based on a study of utterances where this pattern was used even though a canonical word order would have been possible. Such constructs are referred to as the <em>Optional Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase </em>(OPIANP) and have been collected from the British National Corpus (BNC) and <em>Collins Word Banks Online: English Corpus</em> (BoE). The central question is whether there is semantic motivation for this postposition of the indefinite article. The results suggest that there is such motivation, namely that the OPIANP could be an extension of a more frequent construction identified as the <em>Postposed Indefinite Article Noun Phrase</em> (PIANP). Furthermore, it is shown that the pattern’s semantics is unpredictable from the composition of its parts and that its primary function is that it positions already given arguments on an adjectival scale. That is, it foregrounds scalar qualities and backgrounds the noun. These conclusions stem from observations of patterns of unification with other constructions, illustrating how the OPIANP unifies best with the non-referential, descriptive PC-constructions and less well with referential constructions such as the subject and direct object constructions. These findings are remarkable as the idea of an adjective-scalar centred NP-construction challenges the idea of NPs being centred round their head, the noun.</p>

Les unités phraséologiques représentent actuellement un objet d’étude commun à de nombreuses disciplines en science du langage. C’est dans ce cadre que s’inscrivent les travaux exposés dans la présente thèse. Adoptant une optique pluridisciplinaire alliant linguistique et psycholinguistique et impliquant l’approche comparative interlangue, nous étudions un phénomène linguistique complexe, le figement, en français et arabe dialectal tunisien. Nous proposons, en premier lieu, une description des expressions figées dans les deux langues mises en contraste, en repérant la typologie et le fonctionnement morphosyntaxique, lexical et sémantique de ces séquences. Notre attention se porte essentiellement sur les deux notions importantes dans l’étude du figement: la scalarité et l’iconicité. La méthodologie et les résultats d’une étude psycholinguistique et expérimentale réalisée auprès d’adultes francophones natifs et non natifs (des arabophones tunisiens apprenant le français L2) sont, en second lieu, exposés. L’intérêt est de déterminer si les facteurs linguistiques, degré de figement et iconicité, facilitent le traitement du langage figé au cours d’une tâche de mémorisation impliquant l’encodage et la reconnaissance des séquences figées du français. Une troisième expérience consiste en un test de familiarité qui examine l’effet des facteurs linguistiques, la scalarité et l’iconicité, ainsi que personnels, l’âge et le sexe, sur la connaissance des expressions figées du dialectal tunisien par des locuteurs arabophones natifs. Ces recherches psycholinguistiques, portant sur une population d’adultes, sont suivies d’une étude exploratoire sur l’émergence des expressions figées ou semi-figées chez les enfants. Ce travail suit la double problématique de l’émergence et de la comparaison interlangue. Nous comparons les productions de deux enfants: un enfant arabe tunisien et un enfant français. / The phraseological units currently represent a common object of study in many disciplines in language science. It is in this context that we present our work in this thesis. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach combining linguistic and psycholinguistic involving comparative cross-language approach, our goal is to study a complex linguistic phenomenon, the fixation, in French and Tunisian Arabic dialect. We propose, first, to contrast the fixed expressions in both languages by identifying the type and the morphosyntactic, lexical and semantic operation of these sequences. Our interest will focus on two important concepts in the study of the fixed sequences: scalarity and iconicity. The methodology and results of a psycholinguistic and experimental study among native and non-native francophone adults (Tunisian Arabic speakers learning French as second language) will be then exposed. Our aim is to determine whether language factors, scalarity and iconicity, facilitate the processing of fixed expressions during a memorization task involving the encoding and recognition of French frozen sequences. A third experiment is a test of familiarity that examines the effect of linguistic factors, scalarity and iconicity as well as personal factors such as; age and sex, on the knowledge of Tunisian dialect frozen sequences by Arabic native speakers. This psycholinguistic work carried on an adult population is followed by an exploratory study on the emergence of fixed and semi-fixed expressions in children communication. This work follows the dual problem of emergence and cross-language comparison. We compare the productions of two children: a Tunisian Arab child and a French child.

The dissertation deals with semantic relations between adjectives and deadjectival verbs in Czech. It focuses on the question how the property scale conveyed by adjectives is encoded in the semantics of deadjectival verbs. After the first chapter which presents the topic of the dissertation, in the second chapter, I describe the theoretical and methodological context of contemporary linguistics from a broader perspective in order to relate the theoretical and methodological procedures present in this paper to the current linguistic development. The third chapter pursues the semantics of adjectives in Czech and various approaches to their classification. It presents a scalar classification of adjectives according to which adjectives denote a scale of some property, i.e. an ordered set of degrees along a dimension. With support of empirical research (based on a questionnaire survey and corpus data) I show that it is possible to implement the scalar model into the description of Czech adjectives. This approach states that adjectives are one of many means in language that serve to express measurement (and attribute it to objects and individuals). At the end of the chapter, I propose a classification of Czech adjectives and generalize prototypical semantics of adjectival classes by vector constructions...