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

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The quasi-existential on in (374)b is found in episodic sentences. It differs
strikingly by its inaccessibility to pronouns, as in (374)b or Oni a oublié un/*soni
chapeau ici 'Some(one) forgot a/*his hat here' (unless son 'his' is someone else's
hat). Thus in (374)b the possessives must be disjoint from on and also cannot be
the quasi-universal 'one'. The quasi-existential on is unavailable as the subject of
unaccusative, passive, copulative, and raising structures (Cinque 1988).
Finally in (374)c is the 1PL on. It has the same meaning and properties as the
older 1PL weak subject nous, with which it co-occurs in some registers for some
speakers, as in (375) (cf. Morin 1982: 24f., Fauconnier 1974: 206). 182 1PL on is
available in both generic and episodic contexts wherever nous is or was, including
where the quasi-universal and quasi-existential on are possible. It links to the same
1PL anaphora as the older nous and only to them (save for se as discussed below).
183 Also like nous, on1PL is a pronoun for binding conditions, quantifiervariable
binding, 'fake indexicals', and so on.
(375) On savait que Maman voulait qu'on soit sages / que nous soyons sages.
We (on) knew that mom wanted that we (on/nous) be good.
The 1PL use of on is not a special use of the quasi-existential or quasiuniversal
on, for it occurs in the same contexts as they, and has distinctive ana-
current French; at a more literary level it can also be bound by quantifiers, older still by nonquantifiers
(Zribi-Hertz 2008: 612f., Grevisse and Goosse 2008: 664, Kayne 1975: 5.1).
182 Register is important; in (375) replacing nous soyons sages by nous aillions traîre les vaches
'we go milk the cows' is ungrammatical, since aillions go.1PL.SUBJ is not found in the same
register as 1PL on (it is fine with quasi-existential on).
183 Creissels (2008b) describes the restriction of 1PL on to nous-type anaphora situation (cf. Taylor
2009 on Brazilian Portuguese a gente below). However, Morin (1982: 25 note 9) observes
that some speakers also allow soi-type anaphora, as in (ia). I have found both grammars. Speakers
with (ia) seem to permit mixing of the nous and soi-type anaphora, as in the rest of (i). The on
in (i) is the 1PL on, since the quasi-universal on is incompatible with left-dislocated pronouns
(cf. Morin 1982: 15 note 2) and plain episodic contexts (Creissels 2008b). Speakers with this pattern,
like others, cannot use soi-anaphors for pronouns other than on, including nous. (One thinks
of Cinque's 1988: 3.4 suggestions about the emergence of 1PL readings from the other readings
of Italian si, but the anaphora in that case are 1PL. I am grateful to M. Jouitteau for discussion.)
(i) a Ils ne sauraient pas revenir, mais nousi / *vousi / [lui et moi/*toi]i,
They would not know how to return, but wei / *youi / [he and I/*you]i
quand oni perd notrei/(*)soni chemin, oni finit toujours par le retrouver.
when we (oni) loses ouri/(*)soni way, we (oni) always ends up finding it again. 183
b Nousi, quand oni a perdu notrei/(*)soni chemin dans le bois, on l'a retrouvé.
Wei, when oni lost ouri/soni way in the woods, oni found it again.
c [Toi et moi]i, oni si'écoute nousi-mêmes/(*)soii-même.
[You and me]i, oni sei listens.to ouri-selves/(*)soii-self.
d Nousi, oni finira notrei/(*)sai vie dans notrei lit.
Wei, wei (on) will finish ouri/(*)soni life in ouri bed.