L'interprétation Événementielle des Phrases en Il Y A

Abstract

This paper presents an illustration of the claim that it is possible to treat a semantic problem with the use of syntactic data only, i.e. without appealing to extralinguistic considerations. The example in question is concerned with French clauses constructed around Il y a, for example Il y a un tank dans le jardin (There is a tank in the garden) The event interpretation of such a clause can be explained by the pseudo-sentential clause construction Il y a que S, which is formally related to such clauses.