French "il y a" vs "il fait"
Document type :
Partie d'ouvrage
DOI :
Title :
Impersonal existence in the weather domain
French "il y a" vs "il fait"
French "il y a" vs "il fait"
Author(s) :
Meulleman, Machteld [Auteur]
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sur les Langues et la Pensée - EA 4299 [CIRLEP]
Paykin-Arroues, Katia [Auteur]
Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches sur les Langues et la Pensée - EA 4299 [CIRLEP]
Paykin-Arroues, Katia [Auteur]

Savoirs, Textes, Langage (STL) - UMR 8163 [STL]
Scientific editor(s) :
Laure Sarda
Ludovica Lena
Ludovica Lena
Book title :
Existential Constructions across Languages
Publisher :
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Publication place :
Amsterdam
Publication date :
2023-07-15
English keyword(s) :
ambient state
atmospheric event
diachronic
corpus study
synchronic
atmospheric event
diachronic
corpus study
synchronic
HAL domain(s) :
Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Linguistique
English abstract : [en]
This contribution examines the co-existence in French of two impersonalconstructions with a light verb and a weather noun, as in "il y a / il fait duvent" ‘it’s windy’ (lit. there is / it makes wind). Our starting point ...
Show more >This contribution examines the co-existence in French of two impersonalconstructions with a light verb and a weather noun, as in "il y a / il fait duvent" ‘it’s windy’ (lit. there is / it makes wind). Our starting point stems fromBauer’s (2000) observations on Vulgar Latin postulating that "facere" ‘do,make’ with weather nouns appears to compensate for the diminishing use ofintransitive weather verbs. Based on a diachronic and synchronic corpusstudy of weather sentences extracted from Frantext, we argue that Bauer’shypothesis can apply at best to Middle French. For Modern and ContemporaryFrench, our analysis reveals that both constructions are existential with"il fait"+N specializing in expressing ambient states and the "il ya"-construction in expressing atmospheric events or substances.Show less >
Show more >This contribution examines the co-existence in French of two impersonalconstructions with a light verb and a weather noun, as in "il y a / il fait duvent" ‘it’s windy’ (lit. there is / it makes wind). Our starting point stems fromBauer’s (2000) observations on Vulgar Latin postulating that "facere" ‘do,make’ with weather nouns appears to compensate for the diminishing use ofintransitive weather verbs. Based on a diachronic and synchronic corpusstudy of weather sentences extracted from Frantext, we argue that Bauer’shypothesis can apply at best to Middle French. For Modern and ContemporaryFrench, our analysis reveals that both constructions are existential with"il fait"+N specializing in expressing ambient states and the "il ya"-construction in expressing atmospheric events or substances.Show less >
Language :
Anglais
Audience :
Internationale
Popular science :
Non
Collections :
Source :