L'article partitif : l'évolution des conditions d'emploi

Annick Englebert : A Diachronic Study of the Partitive Article Medaevists sometimes deny that a partitive article could exist in Old French. On the other hand, some linguists notice that the contemporary partitive article shows constrained uses (e.g. they notice its infrequency before the subject noun). This study try to link the reservations of the firsts and the observations of the seconds. Among other things, it shows that an early partitive article does exist and how its uses in Old French foreshadow the contemporary ones (e.g. its connection with object nouns of a specific class of verbs in Old French explains its lasting infrequency with the subject).