Les constructions de type Nc-Npr avec et sans déterminant :comparaison français-allemand

Abstract

This French and German contrastive study is about constructions made of a noun phrase (sometimes limited to a single noun) and a name, such as Le capitaine Haddock / Kapitän Haddock ; l’oncle Charles /Onkel Karl ; Le poète Gottfried Benn /der Dichter Gottfried Benn. The use of the definite article in French and German is not identical and comparing such structures enables to better understand the ways various types of nouns work, especially nouns relating to function, status or profession. The study is not just about noun phrases devoid of determiners, but rather about the presence or absence of the definite article in N1N2 constructs. We shall compare those structures, usually viewed as ‘connected appositions’, with detached appositions and constructions using the same semantic types of nouns where the noun phrase using a noun instead of a name can be constructed without a determiner, use of a comma depending on co-textual and contextual elements that we shall explain. The comparison between those different types of appositions shows how close they are and enables to study the difference between designation and denomination of N1.

Keywords

• apposition
• absence of article
• Definite article
• bare noun