French Verbs Research Articles

Verb influence on French wh-placement: a parallel corpus study

Abstract Our study investigates the effect of French verb lemmata on the preverbal (QV) or postverbal (VQ) positioning of interrogative forms equivalent to English ‘what’ (que, quoi, and related forms) within a French–Spanish parallel corpus of subtitles. We highlight and illustrate the corpus’s utility for studying less frequent verbs in combination with specific wh-forms. Our findings suggest that less frequent French verbs exhibit weaker associations with QV compared to their more frequent counterparts. A post-hoc study using Spanish translations reveals that French verbs correlated with QV often denote observable actions involving directly accessible Q-referents. We hypothesise that queries concerning ‘situationally accessible’ referents are predominantly utilised for non-standard, evaluative, or challenging questions, which are typically QV in French.

A diachronic consequence of intransitivity: structural underspecification and processing biases in Old French

Abstract The present study examines the diachronic consequence of a class of words that are superficially intransitive but that often have more than one possible underlying representation. We consider the hypothesis that structural underspecification and structure-based economy constraints on processing may drive a well-studied syntactic change in medieval French: the loss of directional/aspectual verb particles. A corpus-based approach demonstrates that, despite the prominence of Old French verb particles in the expression of motion events, they frequently occur in underspecified contexts for which a prepositional parse involving an implicit object is favored. The net result is very sparse unambiguous evidence for the conservative Old French grammar that underlies the particles.

Syntax and semantics of laisser in causative constructions

The French verb laisser (‘to let’) allows for two different syntactic constructions, an Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) construction and a Faire-Infinitive (FI) construction with a postverbal Causee, and for two different interpretations, authorize and not-intervene. According to previous studies (e.g. Kayne 1975), constructions are related to interpretations: the ECM can express intentionality, the FI cannot. In this paper, we explore a different hypothesis: the ECM construction is underspecified and allows for both interpretations, while the FI is restricted to the not-intervening interpretation. We provide empirical evidence from three distinct forced choice tasks in which participants had to match constructions and interpretations. The results reveal that, contrary to both early observations and our initial hypothesis, both constructions may allow for both interpretations, and variation depends less on the syntactic configuration than on semantic and pragmatic factors, namely on the lexical inferences triggered by the embedded verb and the authority relation between Causer and Causee expressed in the contexts.

Study on Word Formation and Coding of French and Romanian Table Separated Event Verbs

This article invites 10 native French and 10 Romanian speakers to describe 24 videos, and then compares the verbs representing separation events to conduct empirical research on separation events in French and Romanian. In the verb expression of separation events, both French and Romanian verbs use corresponding verb prefixes, indicating tension from "receiving" to "opening". However, when encoding the same separation event, the encoding focus of the two languages is different. Romanian focuses on the movement of a certain component after separation, while French focuses on the action itself. However, overall, both languages can be classified as dual frame languages with both satellite frame language and verb frame language features.

Traduction automatique et désambiguïsation des sens des mots. Le cas du verbe français louer

Machine translators such as those offered by Google, Deep, ChatGPT and others are already using NMT systems. They apply the techniques of artificial intelligence that are constantly being developed, so they are currently providing increasingly correct and suitable translations. In the first part of this article, the author examines the case of the French verb louer by having it translated in different contexts by three automatic translators mentioned to see how effective they currently are as translation tools. Next, the verb louer is presented and analyzed as seen through the prism of the Antidote 8 dictionary. The last part of the article is devoted to the French-Polish description of the verb studied using the Object-Oriented Approach, with the aim of disambiguating it and developing the system of syntactico-semantic rules (object classes, frames, scripts) enabling the appropriate automatic translation of sentences in which it may appear.

Looking differently at locative events: the cognitive impact of linguistic preferences

Abstract While the Talmian dichotomy between satellite-framed and verb-framed languages has been amply studied for motion events, it has been less discussed for locative events, even if Talmy considers these to be included in motion events. This paper discusses such locative events, starting from the significant cross-linguistic variation among Dutch, French, and English. Dutch habitually encodes location via cardinal posture verbs (CPVs; ‘SIT’, ‘LIE’, ‘STAND’) expressing the orientation of the Figure, French prefers orientation-neutral existence verbs like être ‘be’ and English – unlike for motion events – straddles the middle with a marked preference for be but the possibility to occasionally rely on CPVs. Through the analysis of recognition performances and gazing behaviours in a non-verbal recognition task, this study confirms a (subtle) cognitive impact of different linguistic preferences on the mental representation of locative events. More specifically, they confirm the continuum suggested by Lemmens (2005, Parcours linguistiques. Domaine anglais (pp. 223–244). Publications de l’Université St Etienne.) for the domain of location with French on the one extreme and Dutch on the other with English in-between, behaving like French in some contexts but like Dutch in others.

Kesalahan kala bahasa Perancis mahasiswa dengan kemampuan bahasa tingkat menengah

French tenses are one of the most complex and varied aspects of the language, with different verb tenses and grammatical rules that can be challenging for learners to master. The purpose of this study is to analyze the forms of errors in the use of French tenses by learners with an intermediate level of language proficiency and also the factors of these errors. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with a morpho-syntax approach supported by questionnaire and questionnaire distribution techniques in the data collection process. In the process of data analysis, we performed data classification technique followed by mark reading technique. After analyzing the data, it was found that most errors were found in the past tense. The forms of errors found are divided into four types, namely omission of important elements, addition of unimportant elements, misinformation, and errors in arrangement. The factors causing the errors found are linguistic and sociolinguistic factors. One of the linguistic factors found is the adjustment of each verb in French while in Indonesian it is not. Regarding the sociolinguistic factors found, one of them is the lack of time in practicing French by the respondents.

Analysis of French Language Training Needs for Tourism Actors in Nusa Penida

This research is intended to review and characterize the French language training requirements for Nusa Penida tour operators to develop their foreign language skills. In Klungkung Regency, Nusa Penida Island which is located in the south of Bali Island is managed as a Regency. Dubbed “Bali Is Called Nusa Penida The Best Destination for Backpackers,” it ranks first out of 20 countries as the biggest destination for tourists worldwide, beating Vietnam, Madagascar, and other ASEAN countries, according to the New Dublin Based Online and Hostel-Booking Platform.
 Comparing the number of visitors from various European countries to Bali from 2016 to 2020, the number of French tourists occupies the top position. Likewise, the island of Nusa Penida sees many French visitors. The following questions were included in a questionnaire given to 50 respondents: What topic of French are you most interested in learning? What kind of French language education are you looking for? What French term or verb would you like to learn first? What kind of substance do you need? What learning method do you prefer?
 According to the responses, speaking and oral communication skills were cited by 70% of respondents as their top learning priority, followed by outreach by 50% of respondents and courses by 36%. 44% of respondents identified greetings as a function of the language they wanted to learn, while 24% chose greetings and giving information. 48% of respondents said they wanted travel information, and 26% said they wanted information about food. 34% of respondents chose reading and writing as their preferred learning method, while 28% chose to listen.

The VP in language contact: on creation event lexicalization in Canadian French

Abstract The effects of language contact on semantic and syntactic properties of verbs can be considered as not yet extensively studied. This contribution is concerned with French as a typical verb-framed language that cannot freely combine manner verbs with result-denoting arguments within the VP. Drawing on creation events, the study explores if restrictions can loosen, and lexicalization preferences change when French is in contact to a satellite-framed language like English. Judgment data from bilingual speakers of Canadian French (CaFr) are compared to data from speakers of Hexagonal French (HFr). The analysis addresses how selective copying from English is relevant for the acceptability of different VPs and considers how the factors of individual and social language dominance might influence the judgments within the CaFr group. The results show that French manner verbs and direct objects can be coerced into creation readings in both test groups as long as only the selectional restrictions of a particular verb have to be adapted. When, however, a general constraint of French has to be overridden to arrive at a creation reading, acceptability is higher in the CaFr group, who can resort to combinatorial copying from English. Furthermore, VPs in which manner is not lexicalized in the verb are somewhat more accepted in the HFr group than in the CaFr group. Within the CaFr group, certain cases of satellite framing are judged somewhat better by speakers from an English dominant region, while VPs without a manner verb reach slightly higher scores among speakers from Quebec. It is thus shown how structural and speaker-related factors can affect the acceptability of event descriptions in language contact.

Conjuring Green: Jacques Derrida’s Plants

Taking its point of departure in a childhood memory of Derrida around raising silkworms, this essay explores the urgency invoked in the same memory of ‘conjuring green’. Following the polysemy of the French verb ( conjurer means to ‘ward off’, ‘cause (a spirit or ghost) to appear’, ‘implore’, and literally, ‘swear together’), the conjured green binds the child and later the writer surreptitiously to both the community and language of Islam, in which the colour green evokes the gardens of paradise, and the infinitely differentiated proliferation of plants whose anthology encroaches upon and undermines any ontology. Along the meandering lines of Derrida’s meditation on the conjured, warded-off, mourned and celebrated green, the Qur’anic Muslim’s joy and radiance whose roots are the same as those for ‘vividness’ and ‘flourishing’, are grafted onto Hildegard von Bingen’s viriditas, the greening power or force which the German mystic Hildegard von Bingen understood as the living soul of creation; and Darwin’s discovery of the movement of plans as ‘circumnutation’, a Derridian term avant la lettre, that captures the dynamic of plants in Derrida’s Glas.

Pratique Conjugaison par Odile Grand-Clément and Aline Volte

Reviewed by: Pratique Conjugaison par Odile Grand-Clément and Aline Volte Jessica L. Sturm and Randi L. Polk Grand-Clément, Odile and Aline Volte. Pratique Conjugaison. Paris: CLE International, 2021. 978-209-035373-0. Pp. 192. This worktext leads students through practice of major verb tenses appropriate to the B1/B2 learner. One of the authors, Grand-Clément, also produced a version for the A1/A2 proficiency level. Any instructor who used the A1/A2 learner would seamlessly integrate this worktext as it follows the same organization for simpler verb tenses and provides similar types of activities. The B1/B2 text is divided into thirteen sections and provides exercises for the following tenses and moods: passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, passé simple, passé antérieur, impératif, conditionnel présent and passé, subjonctif présent and passé, infinitif, participe présent, voix passive. Each section includes a variety of exercises that allow students to practice the formation of the various tenses and moods through basic drills that provide a verb and pronoun asking students to write out the correct form. Other exercises require students to distinguish between auxiliary verbs, verbs with similar meanings that depend on context like connaître and savoir, or sometimes the difference between the passé composé or imparfait (or other pairs that might cause trouble in subsequent sections like futur antérieur v. conditionnel passé). There are other activities where learners match sentence fragments or other elements, fill in blanks, and complete dehydrated sentences. The varied exercises allow students ample practice to solidify their ability to form these verbs and see the usage in context. Like most other CLE volumes, this text comes with a separate paper pamphlet with the answers so learners can check answers to the 500 exercises on their own. This volume allows learners to practice writing, recognition, and some basic reading skills. The text would be a great resource for a grammar course as it provides many mechanical exercises, so students are prepared to use verbs in more complex situations. Instructors might, for example, follow up with oral presentations or debates that require the use of certain tenses and moods or encourage students to integrate more previously learned vocabulary and structures so they can practice prior knowledge and build on it with new verb tenses and moods. In sum, the worktext is a great resource or supplement for learners trying to master the intricacies of French verbs and can complement other texts and activities in the classroom. The volume can also function as a standalone practice resource for independent learners. [End Page 178] Randi L. Polk Eastern Kentucky University Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French

프랑스어 섭취 동사의통사·의미속성연구

프랑스어 섭취 동사의통사·의미속성연구

Prefigované ekvivalenty francúzskych verb percepcie v slovenčine

The presented article deals with the translation of verbs of perception from French into Slovak in the novel Passing Timeby M. Butor. The focus, in particular, is on the numerous Slovak prefix equivalents of these French non-prefixed verbs. The main goal is the analysis of their meanings. We will observe how the prefix, in addition to changing the imperfect form into the perfect one, modifies the meaning of the basic verb of perception and thus fulfils its lexical-perfective function. We assume that most of the initial non-prefixed verbs in the French source language will be in the compound past tense - passé composé. The partial goal of the research is to find out which prefixes are ​​the most productive in terms of verbal word formation by prefixing. We have found out that in the majority of cases, the prefix not only fulfils a grammatical function, but also has a lexical function that significantly modifies the meaning of the basic non-prefixed verb. For example, it enriches the verb with the meanings of the beginning of the action.

Four Elegies

Four Elegies

Поздравление как социокультурный коммуникативный феномен (на материале немецкого, французского и русского языков)

The purpose of the article is the comparative consideration of Congratulation in informal communication in German, French and Russian linguistic cultures. The method used by the authors of comparative analysis of the semantic and syntactic properties of performatives constituting the speech act Congratulations in these languages allows to draw conclusions regarding the use of etiquette formulas in close connection with a holidays certain category. In contrast of the Russian verb поздравлять, the German verb gratulieren is used in congratulations on personal events of the addressee, while the French verb féliciter is used more often in official communication; in everyday speech preference is given to its substantive derivative félicitations. Congratulations on state or church holidays are good wishes, expressed by nominal phrases. The novelty of the research lies also in addressing the issues of stereotyping and modification of the semantic meanings of particular holidays, emerging of new significant occasions under the influence of democratization processes in society, due to the spread of political correctness ideas, which determines the relevance of the corresponding congratulatory phrases.

Le verbe polysémique baisser dans un corpus parallèle français-polonais

This article analyses the semantic plurivocity of the verb baisser in the Parallel Corpus of French-Polish Literary Texts, as well as the heterogeneity of its equivalents in the target language. Its objective is to specify: (a) which meanings, locative or abstract, are statistically the most significant; (b) whether particular meanings of baisser are translated as suggested by dictionaries and the analysis by Cholewa in paper titled Mouvement à polarité négative du sujet: (se) baisser (2021). Locative meanings of baisser dominate in the corpus, especially that meaning ‘lowering a part of the body’, which is used to describe facial expressions. The most common Polish equivalents are spuścić/spuszczać and opuścić/opuszczać. The observation of the (con)text of the French verb proved promising: with analyses on a larger corpus, it will be possible to indicate the correlations between the (con)text and the choice of a Polish equivalent.

Le verbe français tomber : sa plurivocité sémantique et ses équivalents en polonais et en lituanien. Étude basée sur le corpus parallèle français-polonais-lituanien

The analysis presented in this article is based on the trilingual parallel corpus CTLFR-PL-LT, composed of original French literary texts and their translations into Polish and Lithuanian. The undeniable usefulness of parallel corpora for studies in contrastive linguistics has already been established (Teubert 1996; Kraif 2011; Altenberg and Granger 2002 et al.). The corpora offer rich and reliable data, they [...] “allow us to see meaning through translation” (Johansson 2007, 57).The purpose of this study is twofold: we first aim to analyse the semantic plurivocity of the French verb tomber ‘to fall’ in literary texts. Secondly, we propose to examine the heterogeneity of the equivalents of tomber ‘to fall’ in Polish and Lithuanian, which will allow us to specify which strategies (verbal or other) are used to translate the meanings of the chosen verb. We also check whether the selected verbs in the Lithuanian and Polish translations express the same meaning element of tomber ‘to fall’. It will be particularly interesting to be able to observe whether strategies adopted by translators are specific to each of the target languages, genetically different, or common to both. Thus, we hope to contribute to contrastive French-Polish-Lithuanian research, which has so far been quite scare.

Does French have theme vowels?

Most Romance languages have reduced the Latin conjugation classes (CCs) maintaining only three main classes which are marked as general rule by different theme vowels (ThVs). The development in French, however, is different and has led to less transparent verbal forms and to a CC system that is not describable, at first glance, in terms of ThVs. In our contribution, we pursue the following questions: Does French have ThVs? And if so, which form do the French theme “vowels” – or maybe better, theme extensions – have? Can French verbs be segmented in more than two constituents? Based on a critical discussion of psycholinguistic evidence and embedded in the framework of Distributed Morphology, we show that, in French, regular verbs, verbs with morphophonologically predictable allomorphy and even idiosyncratic verbs are decomposed for lexical access. We argue for two thematic CCs (with the ThV [-ə-] for the 1st CC of the type aimer and [-is-] for the CC of the type finir), while the remaining CCs are athematic. Certain types of root allomorphy, e.g. the (non)appearance of root final consonants, depend, in essence, on whether or not there is a ThV-position available. We propose a feature hierarchy for French CCs, which additionally mirrors the fact that even athematic CCs can have ThVs in certain neutralization contexts, where the realization of the ThV is taken over from the CC of the type finir.

Evaluating morphosemantic demotivation through experimental and distributional methods

Summary The lexicalization of morphologically complex words, i.e. their inclusion in the lexicon, can involve a loss of semantic compositionality. Such a phenomenon, called demotivation, has been overlooked in both morphological and lexical studies, notably regarding its gradual nature. This paper compares two measures of demotivation based on experimental and distributional semantics approaches. It builds on the evaluation of 78 pairs of French verbs and derived nouns selected to represent three levels of demotivation. The comparison of the two approaches using speakers’ judgements and word vector similarity indicates convergence on the identification of demotivation degrees within a continuum, while also highlighting specific aspects of each method. The study provides direction to further research on morphosemantic demotivation, bridging together semantic, morphological and methodological considerations.

When morphology meets regular polysemy

This study investigates the existence of complex morphological patterns that include a regular polysemy extension. Such complex patterns derive ambiguous words whose semantic types are both related and specified. To address this issue, nouns derived from verbs in French are investigated. A sample of 2,953 deverbal nouns ending with 46 suffixes are collected and systematically analyzed with respect to semantic properties and lexical ambiguity. Thirty-eight complex patterns are identified. The formation of ambiguous nouns whose meanings fit into a regular polysemy pattern appears as a discriminative property of some suffixes. Different kinds of patterns are further distinguished, depending on whether secondary meanings in complex patterns can be directly related to a base verb or not. In accordance with the literature on the polysemy of nominalizations, the semantic categories of EVENT and RESULT are prominent in morphological patterns, but other semantic types such as AGENT, INSTITUTION and COGNITIVE OBJECT are importantly represented as well. In addition, metonymy is the main semantic figure observed in complex patterns. Overall, the article sheds new light on the relationship between word formation and lexical polysemy by describing the possibility of direct association between them.