Evolution of prepositions and locative uses in French since the 16th century - syntax and conceptualization of space?

Abstract

The paper first expounds the concept of strong vs weak locativity defined by means of both syntactic and conceptual features and exemplified by various locative prepositional groups (en poche vs dans la poche). Certain kinds of syntactic behaviour (pronominalization through le and y clitics, coordinated use of two prepositions, possibility or impossibility of anaphorization, etc.) are paralleled to conceptual properties of trajector- landmark (cible-site) configuration. Any violation of the prototypicity of this configuration is shown to bring about syntactic irregularities, as observed e.g. in the difference between Le vin est livré en tonneaux vs Le vin est conservé dans un tonneau. In the former sentence which is an instantiation of weak locativity, the prepositional complement tonneau cannot be anaphorized (*Il/Ils est/sont en bois), while similar anaphorization is quite possible in the latter one. The analysis goes on in the diachronic perspective in order to identify different stages in the development of strong/weak locativity, starting with the introduction of the locative preposition dans in the 16th century French. Three grammars (by Meigret, Oudin and Condillac) dating from the 16th to the 18th century provide evidence of notable changes occurred in the afore-mentioned locative constructions. Three different stages can thus be singled out in the development of the strong vs weak locativity opposition. According to our hypothesis, the intermediate stage corresponding roughly to the 16th and 17th centuries can be characterized by an overuse of dans when compared to current-day usage. The prepositional locative groups selecting space portion nouns (dans une plaine/île) are likely to be residual constructions from that period. Finally, parallels are drawn between the development and overuse of dans on the one hand and over-generalization of the same locative preposition during early stages of language acquisition process.