Re: THEORY: Ergativity and polypersonalism

Henrik Theiling/#1 bicker:

> Hi!
>
> # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> writes:
> >...
> I wrote:
> >...
> > >   Moi j'l'aime bien ce film.
> > >       --------
> > >       ^
> > >        \_ verb with subject & object agreement
> > >
> >
> > That is not the same thing that's a contraction of 2 pronouns
>
> Please read Christoph's explanations in the archives, he's French and
> he's a linguist and he's surely more competent on this matter than I
> am.
>
Christophe's point, as I recall, was always about _spoken_ French, in which
"je l'aime" is indeed a phonological unit or "word", /ZlEm/. Note too that
the various parts never occur as independent words: /Z/ /l/ (one could say
that the schwas are predictable, thus non-phonemic!) /Em/ etc. Also, of
course, I like to think he was being only semi-serious :-))))))))

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