Research Article

Licensing by modification: The case of French de nominals1

ÉRIC MATHIEU^a1 c1

^a1 University of Ottawa

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the positive effect that modification has on the distribution of noun phrases in otherwise illicit environments. I focus on de nominals in French. By focusing on these nominals, whose distribution is altered by the addition of modifiers, the paper shows that modifiers can do much more than simply modify: they can change the syntactic and semantic status of a noun phrase. The licensing property of modifiers is an intriguing topic and has not been greatly discussed in the literature. I argue that modifiers can come to play the role of determiners in French as long as they are accompanied by a head de, which is the spell-out of a Cardinal head (see Lyons 1999). My proposal goes back to an old idea put forward by Damourette & Pichon (1911–1940) according to which, in modified contexts, de functions as one half of the article while the adjective functions as the other half. More generally, articles in French are seen as dual entities comprising of a specifier and a head. In the absence of the determiner les, an adjective can raise to the specifier of CardinalP. This is achieved via phrasal rather than head movement.

(Received August 31 2010)

(Revised November 02 2011)

(Online publication March 01 2012)

Correspondence:

^c1 Author's address: Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa, 70 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa, K1N6N5, Canada emathieu@uottawa.ca

Footnotes

[1] I wish to thank two anonymous JL referees for very helpful comments. Funding from SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) is gratefully acknowledged (#410-2005-1781 awarded to Éric Mathieu).