Adverbial complement

Abstract: Danielle Leeman - Complements circonstanciels ou appositions? ; Contemporary studies on apposition no longer take into account, as one of its characteristics, the traditional criterion of co-reference , understood as a virtual (lexical) or actual (referential) identity; from this point of view, certain adverbial complements may be considered as appositions. However, the study of numerous prepositional groups introduced by dans shows that the notion of co-reference is useful when it comes to distinguishing analytically between two types of functions an adverbial complement may have, in so far as its meaning may be circumstantial (e.g. of cause, manner, place) or else correspond to the verbal idea : thus, the decision to dissolve the National Assembly constitutes a mistake in a sentence such as Dans sa decision de dissoudre l'assemblee, Chirac a commis une erreur.

Abstract: SummaryTwo broad categories of frozen adverbial complements may be distinguished, organised around the noun propos in terms of the meaning taken on by this noun within these complements: namely, either «words expressed», «what is said», or «discourse topic», «what is being talked about». In the sense «words expressed», the noun propos is freely allowed in argument positions, and gives rise to the adverbial complement a (ce + ces) propos (‘in this/these connection(s)’), a topicalised temporal, or temporal-causal complement which is synonymous with a (ce + ces) mots ‘with these words’, and does not correspond to any postverbal complement. In the sense «discourse topic», the noun propos, which occurs as an argument only as complement of a small number of verbs (sortir, s’eloigner, revenir a son propos ‘diverge from, come back to one’s topic’), allows the construction of an adverbial complement a ce propos ‘in this connection’ which is found in postverbal position essentially with verbs of saying (where it is distinct in the modern language from the adverbial structure a propos de N ‘on the subject of N’), and in initial position in its function as topicaliser or utterance-level marker.

Abstract: This article analyzes two kinds of Catalan temporal adjuncts headed by the quantifier tot 'all': the intensive tot XP ('all XP') and the extensive tot XP que ('all XP that'), and offers an explanation for their different behavior. The selection restrictions imposed by the quantifier tot in temporal adjuncts and the restrictions on aspectual properties of the sentence predicate will be considered. Furthermore, the complementizer que 'that' in the constructions headed by tot XP que is analyzed as an aspectual-temporal marker that forces the situation expressed by the predicate to be interpreted as hodiernal (i.e. present tense or present perfect). Finally, it will be shown that temporal adjuncts provide an excellent opportunity to study the properties of the left periphery categories and the split of the complementizer layer proposed by Rizzi (1997).

Abstract: El estudio reivindica la falta de atencion prestada, a lo largo de la historia de la linguistica, a las construcciones que presentan una estructura �como� + �sintagma nominal�. Desde una perspectiva sincronica se analiza la construccion en funcion de atributo (del sujeto y del complemento directo), de complemento circunstancial y en otras funciones. This study compensates for the leak of attention paid through the history of Linguistics to constructions with the structure �como� + �noun phrase�. From a synchronic point of view this construction is analyzed in its functions as attribute (of the subject and of the direct object), adverbial complement and other functions.