Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Où? Là, là! On locative encoding in French and au-delà

Ora Matushansky

Résumé

French country names are mostly definite. The article is marked for gender and number:

(1) a.

la France, la Mauritanie, l'Irlande… feminine b. le Canada, le Pérou, l'Iran… masculine c. les Philippines, les Indes plural When used in locative contexts they give rise to allomorphic portmanteaus: (2) a. en France 'in/to France' feminine en Mauritanie 'in/to Mauritania' en Irlande 'in/to Ireland' b. au Canada 'in/to Canada' masculine au Pérou 'in/to Peru' en Iran 'in/to Iran' c. aux Philippines 'in the Philippines' plural aux Indes 'in the West Indies'

There is no phonological link between en (otherwise a locative preposition meaning 'in') and au/aux (otherwise a portmanteau of the general locative preposition à and the masculine/plural definite article)

The choice between en and au(x) is based on the gender and the first segment of the toponym Roadmap (factual and theoretical): Section 2: the facts: the choice between en/au(x), (lexical-)semantic conditions on their use, modularity

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Dates et versions

hal-04874351 , version 1 (08-01-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04874351 , version 1

Citer

Ora Matushansky. Où? Là, là! On locative encoding in French and au-delà. Workshop Non-Bare Proper Names: Proper Names with Determiners and Modifiers in Cross-Linguistic Perspective, May 2024, Cologne, Germany. ⟨hal-04874351⟩
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