Les relatives et les adjectifs à valeur superlative

This article deals with relative clauses which modify NPs containing a superlative adjective. This kind of relative clauses are particular in that, although they are restrictive, the NP does not denote the set on which they operate. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the superlative adjective and the relative clause. In the first section it is shown that not only superlative adjectives but also other adjective with a superlative meaning (such as : seul (‘only’), premier (‘first’), principal (‘main’), etc.) can be used with these relative clauses. What matters, is that they presuppose the existence of a hierarchical ordered set. The second section shows that a relative clause is only one of the structures which contribute to the delimitation of the set on which the adjective operates. Section III discusses the hypothesis of Kampers-Mahne (1991), which relates the analysis of these relative clauses to the mood of the verb: when the subjunctive is used the relative clause is analysed as a complement of the adjective; when the verb has the indicative mood, it is analysed as a normal restrictive clause. It is shown however that the use of the mood is too fluctuant to give rise to totally different analyses of these structures. Finally, section 4 focuses on a frequent use of these relative clauses in copular sentences, due to the double predication expressed by the noun phrase, by the adjective on the one hand and the relative clause on the other