Sociological Linguistics

[Eduard Selleslagh]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu>
Date: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 10:18 AM

> So in French, avoir, unlike Italian avere, needs pronouns in order
>to express person & number. A new complication.

> French Italian
> il ont ha
> ils ont hanno

> But then spoken French pulls a fast one on us by simplifying the
>prefix.

> <il ont> /ilo~/ > /io~/
> <ils ont> /ilzo~/ > /zo~/

> Now an auxiliary pronoun has become a bound morpheme. Another
>complication.

[Ed Selleslagh]

Actually, it is 'il a' / 'ils ont', unless you meant something I didn't get.
As far as I can see, the ever-present pronouns are not really needed to
disambiguate, in almost all cases (However: tu as/il a, same pronunciation:
tüá/ilá).  In early French, pronouns were *not* used : cf. Rabelais in
one of his satirical tales, citing the (supposedly archaic, i.e. to him)
inscription above the gate of the abbey Noirmoustier ('blackminster') "Fays
ce que voudras" ('Do whatever YOU  [will] want'. In equally archaic
Castilian: 'Haz lo que quisieres', with future subjunctive).

[snip]

Ed