Quand "Il" est fort en thème : entre double marquage et anaphore zéro

Abstract

This paper deals with a “strange case of topicalization” in the poem Idylle Moderne by Alphonse Allais. On the one hand we can find, at the very beginning of the text, an accentuated form of the “pronoun”, that is to say a nominal substitute; on the other hand, it seems that the comma of the first line has disappeared, while it is maintained in the latter. Between a “false” double-marking and a zero anaphora, we try to describe the syntactical and the informational organization of the first sentences in terms of a hybrid form of operation, where (and when) a topic plays a focal part too..

Keywords

• Topic-focus
• double-marking
• zero anaphora
• functional sentence perspective