The syntax of French "à" and "de": An HPSG analysis
Résumé
We present a descriptive overview of the uses of the French prepositional forms à and de and the properties of the constructions they appear in. The complexity of the data excludes a unified syntactic and/or semantic treatment, but significant subregularities can be identified. We develop a formal account (in the framework of HPSG) of the patterns observed, relying on the notions of categorial identity, ‘weak head' status, and grammatical marking. Finally, we provide an analysis of the portmanteau forms au, aux, du, and des, which are shown to obey an unusual combination of local and non-local restrictions.