Plural marking in French NA/AN combinations

What liaison can tell us

Bibliographic Data

ID19415147
AuthorsNatascha Pomino (0000-0001-7048-1514, Romanistik/Linguistik, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, corresponding author), Elisabeth Stark (0000-0001-8807-0270, Romanisches Seminar, Universität Zürich, Switzerland)
Year2016
Volume35
Issue2
Pages137-169
Publication date2016-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueZeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0721-9067 • E-ISSN: 1613-3706
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/zfs-2016-0011
OpenAlexW2548722453
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited9

Our paper discusses different patterns of plural marking in N(oun)A(djective)/A(djective)N(oun)-combinations in phonic French. We first show, based on previous observations, that French has incomplete plural agreement in complex nominal phrases and that there is a striking asymmetry between AN-combinations (plural marking on the determiner and prenominal adjectives via liaison , where possible) and NA-combinations (usually, only plural marking on the determiner and infrequent liaison between N and postnominal A). In order to understand this discrepancy, we have analyzed all the occurrences of AN and NA in two French corpora and found a strong tendency for liaison in NA only to appear systematically and independently from register variation in “proper-name like” expressions such as Jeux Olympiques ‘Olympic Games’ ([ʒøzolɛ̃pik]). In a third step, we discuss this empirical finding and consider it synchronically as a case of morphophonological “proper name marking” (cf. Nübling 2005)

Agreement · Asymmetry · Determiner · Linguistics · Noun · Particle physics · Physics · Plural · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies

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