Cette mesure est-elle vraiment clé? A constructional approach to categorial gradience

Abstract

This article investigates the recently developed adjectival properties of the French noun clé ‘key’, as attested in for instance un poste très clé ‘a really key position’ and Cette mesure est-elle vraiment clé? ‘Is this measure really key?’. The main purpose of this study is triple: it consists in analysing (i) which adjectival uses can be found in modern French, (ii) to what extent they are accepted by native speakers (from different geographical varieties) of French, and (iii) how they can be accounted for within the framework of Construction Grammar and Construction Morphology. It will be hypothesised that French clé is subject to categorial gradience as a consequence of an ongoing constructionalisation process.

Compounds and multi-word expressions in French

“…version of the hypothesis, including Ackema/Neeleman (2004), Booij (2005) and Lieber/Scalise (2007). 15 Our previously conducted corpus research (Amiot/Van Goethem 2012;Van Goethem 2012, 2015 indicate that the most frequently inserted adverb is vraiment 'really, truly ', as in (18), but other degree adverbs can be found too: absolument 'absolutely' (19), réellement 'really' (20), extrêmement 'extremely' (21) and even, but more rarely, très 'very' 22 This demonstrates the qualifying value of N 2 vis-à-vis N 1 . We will return to this in Section 5, but it is worth noting for the time being that this behavior distinguishes the qualifying subordinative [N 1 N 2 ] from the classifying subordinative (Section 4.1).…”

From Noun to Evaluative Adjective: Conversion or Debonding? DutchTopand Its Equivalents in German

“…Logically, when an affixoid undergoes debonding and is reanalyzed as an adjective, attributive uses tend to appear before predicative uses (see the case study on French clé in Amiot & Van Goethem 2012 and Van Goethem 2015, and the study on Dutch reuze in Van Goethem & Hiligsmann 2014).…”

Dos monument , manifestations monstres / dos monumental , manifestations gigantesques : quelques remarques à propos de la synonymie entre substantifs épithètes de qualification et adjectifs qualificatifs

“…8 Van Goethem (2012et 2015. relève quelques cas où l'accord en genre est effectué avec clé (position clée, figure clée, notion clée), mais ces accords restent (encore) assez rares : les recherches d'occurrences effectuées par Van Goethem (2012 : 11) sur le site WebCorp font apparaître une variation en genre pour 15,32 % des occurrences de position clé(e), 5,21 % de celles de figure clé(e) et 3,41 % de celles de notion clé(e).…”