PIE syntax and word-order

[Stanley Friesen]

At 10:07 PM 6/8/01 +0200, Xavier Delamarre wrote:
>le 5/06/01 10:09, Eduard Selleslagh à edsel at glo.be a écrit :

>>> 1/ Hier j'ai achete une maison tres grande a Vaucresson

>>> 2/ Hier j'ai achete une tres grande maison a Vaucresson

>>> Absolutely no difference in meaning, style or emphasis. I am sorry.

>> Yes, but consider:
>> 1) De Gaulle était un très grand homme.
>> 2) De Gaulle était un homme très grand.

>> The meaning is completely different.

>     Of course, classical example of handbooks. You have (semantic) freedom
>with the substantive maison but not with homme.

My French is rather weak, so I would appreciate an explanation of the 
distinction in the case of 'homme', please?

>     What is in question here is that when there is the possibility of free
>word order, it does not induce _systematically_ a difference in meaning,
>style, emphasis etc.

This is tricky to analyze.  Sometimes a regular distinction is neutralized
in some conditions.  Also, self reporting is not always the best criterion
for such subtle distinctions.  It would be interesting to see an analysis
of the distribution of the two patterns in an extended prose set for "free"
words such as 'maison'.

In Latin there is good evidence that adjectives (and similar modifiers)
placed before the noun provide some form of prominence or salience to the
adjective.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net