SUBORDINATE AND MATRIX SYNONYMIC INFINITIVE UTTERANCES IN FRENCH FICTION OF THE XX – XXI CENTURIES

Abstract

In this article subordinate and matrix infinitive utterances are defined as one-basis (with one transformational terminal chain) and two-basis (with two or more transformational terminal chains) synonymic transforms of the virtual (linguistic) primary propositionnal structure with the concessive, temporal, causal, final, hypothetical semantic meanings. They are actualized in the form of preferential options-compressed, extended or quantitatively equacomponential discourse innovations with the explicit predicate and the implicit actant coreferent or non-coreferent with the actant of the matrix utterance according to the communicative intention or the idiostyle of the author. Different semantic-structural types of subordinate infinitive utterances, the matrix infinitive utterances containing the verb savoir, the specific extended polypredicative constructions (with the extender-demonstrative pronoun) and the quantitatively equacomponential structures with the initial infinitive are distinguished. The inverse reconstruction (discourse → language) of the virtual transformational processes is carried out in order to identify all the members of the virtual synonymic chains. It is proved that the procedure of the inverse reconstruction and the identification of the primary proposition are impossible in case of the insufficience of the expression. The “alternativeˮ linguistic experiment allows for justifying the co(n)textual (linguistic and situational) pertinence of the analyzed synonymic preferential options and determining the author’s idiostylistic peculiarities.