Verbes supports : perspective diachronique
Light Verbs — A Diachronical Perspective

Summary/Abstract: This contribution applies the classical model of French “light verbs” to a highly abstract lexical sphere—“shell nouns” such as opinion and information—which has been neglected by research so far. This study focuses on combinations between these nouns and the verbs être and avoir, which have been subject to diachronic variation that can be traced back to medieval times in the Frantext corpora. The findings suggest that the combinatorics of today’s words often reflects a categorization of the world corresponding to yesterday’s imagination.

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