Changes in the structure of grammatical systems : the evolution of French

Titre du fascicule : Aspects of linguistic Change.Typologies of linguistic change distinguish two sets of causes: external and internal. This paper focuses on the latter. Certain changes taking place in a given language over a given period produce very similar outcomes. This is the case with four important changes which occurred in different parts of French grammar between the 13th and 15th centuries: demonstratives, indefinites, the replacement of moult by très and beaucoup, and the distinction between prepositions and adverbs. This paper argues that these similarities can be explained with reference to a grammatical change at the level of macro-structure: an extension of the morphological distinction between first-level units ("heads") and second-level units ("adjuncts")