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Les infinitifs racines en langage enfantin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Marie Labelle*
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal

Abstract

This article is mostly devoted to a critical review of the main analyses of root infinitives. Confronting these analyses to acquisition data from French, it is shown that an analysis in terms of a “null auxiliary” is more compatible with the data than the alternative hypotheses. However, an analysis in terms of a null or deleted auxiliary raises some difficult questions with respect to the existence and the nature of null elements in child language. Rather than appealing to null or deleted elements, it seems more appropriate to assume that children utterances do not include an auxiliary or a modal and that the corresponding node is simply not projected. An analysis along these lines is developed in the last section of the article.

Résumé

Résumé

La majeure partie de cet article est consacrée à une revue critique des principales analyses des infinitifs racines, en les confrontant aux données d’acquisition du français. Il est montré qu’une analyse du type «auxiliaire nul» est plus compatible avec les faits que les hypothèses concurrentes. Une analyse avec auxiliaire nul ou effacement de l’auxiliaire soulève cependant des questions difficiles quant à l’existence et à la nature des éléments nuls en langage enfantin. Plutôt que de postuler la présence d’un élément nul ou l’effacement d’un élément, il semble préférable de supposer que les énoncés enfantins en question ne comportent tout simplement pas d’auxiliaire ou de modal et que le noeud correspondant n’est pas projeté. La dernière section de l’article comporte une proposition d’analyse en ce sens.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 2000

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