| dc.description.abstract | Inversion is the main theme of this research. We begin with the examination of different types of inversion and different elements which trigger the inversion: verbs, complements and sentential adverbs. Among these triggers, we select the sentence adverb for our study and, in particularly, the adverb ainsi. The reason is that when we collect our corpus, we find that this adverb shows some specific characteristics both in syntax and semantics.
We re-visit the category of inversion and add a new sub-type for the complex inversion: the complex inversion with (a) topic(s). Based on this result, we find that the subject in complex inversion is the pronoun, which comes after the verb. The nominal element in the preverbal position, on the other hand, is actually a topic.
Next, we concentrate on the mechanism of the movement of the adverb ainsi. We find that it functions the same as interrogative words (qui, que, quand and comment). In fact, ainsi and those interrogative words can have a corresponding assertive form before moving to the initial position of the phrase. And they also accept better simple nominal inversion than the other sentence adverbs and the interrogative word, pourquoi.
As adverb ainsi can have 5 different meanings according to the context (manière, quotatif, conséquence, précision, and illustratif), we try to understand the interaction between the types of inversion and the meanings of ainsi as well as the different classes of verbs (transitifs, intransitifs, réfléchis, passifs, de mouvement and d′état).
As far as the interaction of the types of inversion and the meanings of ainsi, we find that there′re two meanings of ainsi which allows the simple nominal inversion: manière and quotatif. However, all these 5 meanings of ainsi are followed by both the simple pronominal inversion and complex inversion.
When it comes to the classes of verbs, simple nominal inversion is mostly found with intransitive verbs and reflexive verbs. On the other hand, we find that stative verbs are much more likely to co-occur with the simple pronominal inversion. For the complex inversion, it shows fewer occurrences with any classes of verbs.
We then examine the interaction between the classes of verbs and the meanings of ainsi, which is much more difficult to distinguish even for native speakers. As we can tell, ainsi de manière is a meaning which comes along with all the classes of verbs, except the stative verbs. Ainsi de conséquence also seems to be able to co-occur with all the classes of verbs, except reflexive verbs. As for the meaning quotatif, it is most found with declarative verbs, no matter the classes. Speaking of the meaning de précision and illustratif, these two are hard to identify when it comes to the classes of verbs.
Finally, we observe a cleft structure, c′est ainsi que, which allows only simple nominal inversion. For the verbs found in the inversion, the result tells us that they can only be intransitive verbs, reflexive verbs and verbs of movement. Furthermore, the meanings of ainsi here are de manière, de conséquence, or précision.
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