morphological? - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

(4) C’est la combientième inondation dans la région ?
‘Which rank in the series of floods in the region does this flood occupy?’
(5) a ième’(combien’) = ‘X that occupies which rank’
b combientième’(inondation’) = ‘X that occupies which rank in the series
of floods’
2.2. Nouns suffixed by -AINE
As mentioned above, two types of derived nouns correspond to these Ns and they are
distinctive at the syntactic as well as at the semantic level. The first one denotes exact
denotata (sizaine) while the second one denotes approximative denotata (une centaine).
Exact X-aine can be formed on any number, to name entities in any domain, while in
standard French approximative X-aine has restricted application (as will be described
later). Morevover, while the former behave like standard Ns, the latter are specifiers of
countable nouns, e.g. une quinzaine de maisons ‘about fifteen houses’. Finally, exact Xaine
are absolute Ns, while approximative ones need to have a complement, as shown in
examples (6):
(6) a Il commande une sizaine (*de scouts).
‘He rules a team of six (scouts)’
b Elle a vu une quinzaine *(d’enfants).
‘She saw about fifteen (children)’
The rule forming exact X-aine nouns seems to be slightly productive, and we can easily
find new lexemes of this type in texts or on the Web, e.g. septaine ‘set of seven markedoff
numbers that follow each other on a bingo card’. If NOBJ denotes the type of the
objects counted, and NREF the derived collective noun’s referent, the semantic schema
associated to this lexeme formation rule (LFR) would informally be (7):
(7) aine 1’(cardinal’) = ‘N REF that comprises of N OBJ’
aine’(quarante’) = ‘group of forty days’ = 'period that lasts 40 days'
(quarantaine).
Finally, the discursive domain in which the rule applies can force a pragmatic
reevaluation of the semantics of NREF and NOBJ, as is evident in the specific meaning of
septaine cited above or in quarantaine as a stretch of time.
As for approximative X-aine, apart from huitaine, douzaine and quinzaine, in
standard French the X-aine derivatives can be formed only on ten or multiples of ten:
dizaine, vingtaine, trentaine, quarantaine, cinquantaine, septantaine (Belgium,
Switzerland), nonantaine (ibid.), etc. However, approximative X-aine formed on other
numerals is attested in a great variety of texts, as examplified in (8):
(8) La centaine de députés et la soixante-dizaine de sénateurs (…) ont une charge
importante. (Web)
‘The hundred or so deputies and the seventy or so senators (…) have an
important task’
Approximative X-aine only occur in constructions (9) and it behaves like a quantifier,
insofar as it requires its reference set to be mentioned (cf. (10)).
(9) a. DET Xaine de N COUNT e.g. plusieurs dizaines de chats
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