Sous la direction de Kim Gerdes et Claude Muller
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes 29:1] 2006
► pp. 25–41
A locative inversion (LI) sentence is a distinct construction characterized by the presence in clause-initial position of a locative or temporal complement (which is either subcategorized by the verb or operates as an adjunct) followed by the verb itself followed by the subject . The discourse function of such a construction is to establish the spatial or temporal setting of a discourse-new entity (represented by the subject) within the framework of a more general context already presented in a preceding discourse. The verb is there only to provide and denote a specific manifestation of the existence, localisation or state of this entity, but the information it conveys can be often reduced to a minimum (to be, to be found) or even omitted. On the contrary, the subject in clause-final position is assigned a predicate-focus function (“presentational focus”) from which the following discourse is generally bound to develop. In this study, only LI constructions with spatial complements are given a description of their most salient syntactic properties and of their discursive effects.
Article language: French
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.