IMPERSONAL METAPHORICAL CONSTRUCTIONS
Journal Title: Записки з романо-германської філології - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue
Abstract
The article deals with the peculiarities of the formation of impersonal metaphorical constructions, namely in the context of their implementation, as one of the ways to identify semantic-syntactic changes. In those types of constructions (IMC) lexical and grammatical elements, that differentiate in speech their grammatical meanings, have been studied and the valency and component aspects of analysis in investigation of the predicative syntagm semantics have been applied. According to the generative grammar, the sentence model is as follows: P (sentence) → S (subject) + V (predicate), which also entails the problem of studying impersonal constructions (IC): "(...) the personal pronoun il replaces a noun, which can always be restored from the context or situation, while the impersonal pronoun does not replace a noun and has no referential correlation. It has a purely grammatical function, occupying the position of the subject with a finite verb, as finite verbs in the French language in all the moods except imperative must, as a rule, have a subject» Some verbs which usually describe meteorological phenomena are used only in the impersonal form without extension: pleuvoir, venter, grêler, geler, grésiller, tonner, bruiner, fraîchir, etc. Pleuvoir and neiger however may be accompanied by a nominal extension that identifies the material manifestation of the process. The impersonal il represents the characteristic features of the position and agreement of functions of subject, but it is removed from the referential opposition attached to the canonical subjects. On the contrary, the sequence of the impersonal verb is interpreted as the subject, which shares certain properties of a direct object, particularly in terms of pronominalization. This dissociation between syntactic functions and semantic roles led to differences between il grammatical subject (or obvious) and the sequence of impersonal verbs, which is represented as a logical subject (or real). According to the combined criteria of form and meaning the verbs that form impersonal constructions may be subdivided into two homogeneous classes, without the introduction of these two types of subject to the same phrase structure nor a mechanical formation of impersonal constructions from a personal source. In fact, in all of these constructions, the impersonal il functions as an additional form (forme postiche) (verbal action, referentially void) designed to occupy a canonicaly devoid or vacant position by the subject. In the language of law, we can often find the impersonal passive form of transitive verbs: Il a été trouvé un trousseau de clefs. Here, what is denoted by the passive type is a verbal form with the auxiliary passive être. We should note the absence of the object (complément d'agent) of the passive verb.
Authors and Affiliations
L. S. Korpan
Keywords
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