Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of - UMR 7023 - CNRS

119
The causee of the connaître-class ceases to have the prominence to control
into adjuncts precisely when there is a 1 st /2 nd person accusative clitic. The relevant
notion of prominence has been argued to be c-command at LF (Landau 2010: 8.1;
cf. Legendre 1989a: 771 note 23, 777 note 26). Thus the à-phrase causee of the
connaître class escapes the PCC because it can be lower than regular à-causees,
below the direct object, as (122) predicts. These low causees may be prepositional
datives, but there are other options, such as low applicative datives in the minimal
domain of the direct object. The possibility is lexically limited, and not shared
even by other experiencer-agent verbs like aimer 'like, love'. 81
4.5.5 Experiencer datives
The behaviour of regular causees is found also with another applicative dative,
the experiencer of the verb falloir 'need'. Falloir has a unique structure in French,
(182). It is a transitive with an accusative direct object or theme, a dative experiencer,
but an expletive subject, in violation of Burzio's Generalization.
(182) a. Il faut ces gens à mon amie (pour l'aventure).
b. Il les faut à mon amie
c. Il les lui faut
it them.A her.D needs these people to my friend (for the adventure)
My friend/she needs these people (for the adventure).
The meaning of the experiencer of falloir suggests an applicative dative, like
that of psych-unaccusatives such as manquer 'miss, be missing', rather than a
prepositional indirect object. It is confirmed by various diagnostics; for instance,
in (183) the theme can bind into the à-phrase dative with ditransitives, but not
with falloir (cf. Postal 1989: 9, 37f., 50, 1990: 171f., Legendre 1989a, Herschensohn
1992, 1999, Landau 2010: 8.1, Roberge and Troberg 2007: 316f.).
(183) a. J'ai décrit Philippe à lui-même.
I have described Philippe to him-self
b. *Il faut Philippe à lui-même
it needs Philippe to him-self
(Postal 1990: 171f.)
81 Postal (1989) develops a battery of other diagnostics, such as the binding in La psychiatrie a
fait (se) connaître Marcel à lui-même 'Psychiatry made know Marceli to himselfi = made Marcel
know himself' (Kayne 1975: 372). They seem persuasive, but the details are complex, and the
judgments on them and on (181)a turn out to vary across speakers who yet keep the exceptionality
of the connaître-class in allowing 1/2/SE.ACC clitics. It may be that some speakers analyze
à-causees in the connaître-class quite differently, essentially as adjuncts; the use of à-phrases for
agents in Middle French bears keeping in mind (Zink 1997: 277). An interfering factor in evaluating
Postal's examples are the facts about 3.ACC animate clitics in note 79.