The Evolution of the French Preposition System

该项目的目的是历时研究法语介词的使用，语义和话语价值，从古法语到现在，en, par, contre, d<e:1>, devant, entre, pour, sans, sur, sous， vers和dans。这项研究将以统计和分布方法为基础，研究介词组合行为的变化，这取决于日期（历时演变）、体裁和作者。一个特别有趣的领域将是检测由介词进入的高度特定的组合。我们将研究化石介词结构的兴起、重组和衰落。我们希望通过基于两套方法程序的分析模型，获得一种关于历时进化的创新观点：(1)研究定量（介词的使用）和定性（值）维度之间的相互依存关系；(2)研究在历时中寻找附加语义和话语价值的原则——这是语言变化的真正驱动力。该项目的必要条件之一，也将是其主要贡献之一，将是建立一个跨越法语历史各个阶段的注释和归纳语料库，并平衡体裁和文本类型。该语料库由法国和德国团队共同建立，将部分基于里昂（中世纪）、图尔（16世纪）、南希（ATILF）和科隆（17 - 20世纪的现代法国）已有的资源。将采取积极主动的方法，使尽可能多的语料库开放访问。

The aim of this project is a diachronic study of the uses, semantics and discourse values of the French prepositions à, en, par, contre, dès, devant, entre, pour, sans, sur, sous, vers and dans from Old French to the present.The study, which will be instrumented and based on a statistical and distributional approach, will bear on the variations in the combinational behaviour of prepositions depending on date (diachronic evolution), genre and author. One area of special interest will be the detection of the highly specific combinations into which the prepositions enter. We will study the rise, reorganization and fall of fossilized prepositional structures. We expect to get an innovative view of diachronic evolution thanks to a model of analysis based on two sets of methodological procedures: (1) a study of the interdependence between the quantitative (uses of prepositions) and qualitative (values) dimensions, and (2) a study of the principles which have underlain the search for added semantic and discourse values in diachrony - a veritable driving force of language change. One of the requisites of the project - which will also be one of its major contributions - will be the construction of an annotated and lemmatized corpus spanning every stage of the history of French and balancing genres and text types. This corpus, set up jointly by the French and German teams, will be based partly on resources already available in Lyon (mediaeval era), Tours (16th century), Nancy (ATILF) and Cologne (modern French, 17th - 20th centuries). A proactive approach will be taken to give open access to as much of the corpus as possible.