Le rôle de ce dans la résolution des problèmes d’accord verbal

Abstract

This paper studies sentences, common in modern French as well as in classical French, which combine a singular subject and a plural predicate, giving rise to agreement of the verb être with the predicate. These sentences are often perceived as incorrect by speakers. Normative grammar recommends the insertion of ce between the first constituent and the verb: the demonstrative pronoun makes both plural or singular agreement acceptable.

Keywords

• agreement
• syllepsis
• demonstrative pronoun
• predicate
• classical french