Структура вопросительного предложения с именным подлежащим во французском языке в диахронном аспекте

Abstract

The article is focused on the study of interrogative sentences with a nominal subject in the French language in terms of structural criteria in a diachronic aspect. The purpose of this study is to reveal the features of the so-called complex inversion in interrogative sentences. Special attention is paid to terminological problems. Pronominal reprise is recognized by the authors as the most correct term for an interrogative construction with a nominal subject duplicated by a personal pronoun. The lack of uniformity in terminology indicates a multidimensional nature of the inversion phenomenon in the French language. For instance, in addition to interrogative sentences, it can be used in other contexts: in simple declarative sentences after certain adverbs, in subordinate clauses after some conjunctions, in exclamatory sentences, etc. The authors highlight and describe the characteristic features of interrogative sentences with a nominal subject in terms of diachrony. Pronominal reprise appears in interrogative constructions as early as in the 16th century, mainly in general questions, subsequently extending to special questions. In the 16th – 17th centuries, the subject did not regularly precede the verb; the same applied to interrogative words, which could be placed both to the left and to the right of the subject. In sentences with a nominal subject, reprise was not the only possible structural option. The following were also used: direct word order, construction question word + est-ce que, and simple inversion. The authors come to the conclusion that pronominal reprise had finally replaced simple inversion of the nominal subject in general questions in French by the end of the 17th century.