nominalizations of french psychological verbs - Fachbereich ...

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JUDITH MEINSCHAEFFER
of the experience, as in (10a), but not to the experiencing entity, (10b). With
(most) EO-verbs, they can realize neither participant, (10c) and (10d). 2
(10) a. l’admiration du lecteur pour ce livre
“the admiration of the reader for this book”
b. #l’admiration de ce livre pour le lecteur
“the admiration of this book for the reader”
c. #l’amusement des enfants pour ce jeu
“the amusement of the children for this play”
d. #l’amusement de ce jeu pour les enfants
“the amusement of this play for the children”
Pour-phrases are also found with non-deverbal psychological nominals; they
likewise refer to the target or cause of the experience, but not to the experiencing
entity, see (11).
(11) a. Nicolas s’intéresse aux détails.
“Nicolas is interested in the details.”
b. #l’intérêt pour Nicolas
“the interest for Nicolas”
c. l’intérêt pour les détails
“the interest for the details”
Interestingly, de-phrases do not show the same distribution with respect to
all classes of psychological nominalizations, as exemplified by (1) and (2) above.
De-phrase complements of ES-nominalizations can realize either the experiencing
entity, as in (7b) above, or the target or cause of the experience, (7c) above. The
same is true for de-phrase complements of some EO-nominalizations, like
fascination. In (12b), the de-phrase refers to the experiencing entity; in (12c), it
refers to the target or cause of the experience.
(12) a. L’orateur a fasciné l’auditoire.
“The speaker fascinated the audience.”
b. La fascination de l’auditoire était facile.
“The fascination of the audience was easy.”
c. La fascination de l’orateur m’a surpris.
“The fascination of the speaker surprised me.”
2 Still, one does find phrases like la fascination de ce livre pour les lecteurs contemporains “the
fascination of this book for contemporary readers”. Examples of this type are discussed in section 6.