Atypical Argument Structure in French: from Metaphorical uses to atypical ones
Résumé
The article analyses some atypical constructions of French intransitive verbs,
such as" ils ont suicidé le ministre" (they suicided the minister), "la crème a explosé
les poux" (the cream exploded the lice), and tries to account for their existence,
as the construction is not always possible, and differs semantically from "ils l’ont
fait se suicider" (they made him commit suicide), "il a fait exploser la bombe" (he
triggered the bomb), where the FAIRE faire construction is compulsory. The hypothesis
is that the atypical constructions can be explained within the domain
of causative constructions, and more particularly with regard to the distinction
between internal and external causation (Guéron, Talmy, Levin, McKoon and
Macfarland). The atypical constructions are only possible when no internal
causation is available, namely when the causee does not possess the internal
characteristics enabling the change of state to occur: the minister was not the
suicidal type and the interpretation is then that he was murdered. A change of
state did occur, but not the one denoted by the lexical verb.
Loading...