Publications
Publication details [#2446]
Benninger, Céline. 2001. Une meute de loups/une brassée de questions: Collection, quantification et métaphore. Lacus Forum 129 (Feb.) : 21–34. 14 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
French
Keywords
Abstract
French expressions of the type 'un essaim de guêpes' (a swarm of wasps), consisting of a quantifying binomial syntagm in which a collective or quantifying noun is construed with a specifying complement, are analyzed in terms of the notions of collection, quantification, and metaphor. Collective nouns are held to be those presenting three properties: the singular intrinsically refers to the idea of plurality perceived as a whole, the denoted plurality consists of isolable and homogeneous entities, and the relation of a collective noun to its specifying complement corresponds to that between a set and its elements. Quantifying nouns are defined as syncategorematic, i.e., they cannot exist or refer independently of their complements. Marked and unmarked uses of collective nouns in quantifying binomial syntagms are reviewed, and metaphor is shown to operate differently on the two types of nouns: it extends the domain of quantifying nouns without changing their meaning, whereas the metaphoric decipherment of a collective noun with an inappropriate specifying complement cancels the referential autonomy of the former and converts it to a quantifying noun.
(J. Hitchcock in LLBA 2001, vol. 35, n. 3)