Les constructions détachées entre micro- et macro-syntaxe
Detached Constructions between Micro- and Macro-Syntactic Levels

Summary/Abstract: This paper gives an account of the detached constructions in French from two perspectives: the syntax of complex sentences and thematic and referential cohesion of the text. After presenting a typology of these constructions in French, the author focuses on detached adjectives and participles and on NP in apposition or absolute construction in order to show that, discussed in terms of second predication and inner complexity, these constituents are not beyond the framework of the syntax structure. Therefore analyzing the detached constituents in a sentential context is quite possible, so the micro- and macro-syntactic levels are not disconnected from each other. This confirms the textual analysis based on samples of literary or journalistic discourse. These phenomena of re-configuration of the sentence are actually "syntactic rearrangements for the communicative purposes" (Riegel et al, 1994: p. 386). Their role is to allow the sentence to adapt its functional structure in context, i.e. to fit into the referential, thematic and temporal cohesion of the text. In literary and media discourse, these phenomena are also designed to produce certain stylistic effects of symmetry, framing or emphasis.

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