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This article argues for a logophoric analysis of Free Indirect Discourse (FID). FID is descriptively a hybrid between Direct Discourse (DD) and Indirect Discourse (ID). Recent studies largely agree on a DD-based analysis of FID by relying on bicontextual dependency (Schlenker 2004, Eckardt 2014, i.a.) or mixed quotation (Maier 2015, i.a.). Instead, the article defends an ID-based, logophoric analysis of FID on the basis of overlooked properties of FID such as (un)licensing of (anti)logophoric elements and recursive embedding of FID, which strengthen some previously discussed arguments such as de se and de te readings or sequence of tense phenomena (see Sharvit 2008); the new observation that time and location adverbials are in fact not systematically indexicals anchored to the protagonist (but can be anaphoric or anchored to the speaker) further supports ID-based against DD-based analyses. The hypothesis that FID is outscoped by a logophoric operator not only derives the mixed properties of FID, but also treats FID as a case of an independently motivated linguistic class – the class of logophoric contexts.

The general goal of the article is to argue for the hypothesis that just like comparative morphemes (e.g. English -er), superlative morphemes (e.g. English -est) can take a degree clause as argument, which denotes the domain of comparison. The specific goal consists in showing that this hypothesis provides a novel solution to two controversial empirical puzzles: how to derive (i) the low reading of intensional superlatives (e.g. the reading of "the longest book that John said that Tolstoy had written" when John – not the speaker – evaluates the lengths of the books under consideration), and (ii) upstairs de dicto readings (e.g. the reading of "John wants to climb the highest mountain" when John has a specific desire of climbing achievement without any comparative content). In both cases, the superlative clause hypothesis solves previously unsolved problems because it allows split scope between -est and the gradable adjective across the intensional predicate, as well as (variously partial) ellipsis of the degree clause.

In recent years, the formal methods used in generative linguistics have proved to be very fruitful for the study of music cognition (see Jackendoff & Lerdahl 1985, Katz & Pesetsky 2011, a.o.). At the same time, a wealth of studies has emerged on sign languages, investigating the impact of a different modality (space vs. sound) on linguistic systems (see Schlenker 2014, Davidson 2015, a.o.). These two recent developments taken together raise the following question: is there a gestural counterpart of music, the study of which could shed new light on human cognition?The hypothesis of this paper is that dance as a cognitive system is the equivalent of music in the spatial modality. This means that the use of formal methods should allow us to determine a grammar of dance, i.e. the cognitive structures underlying the understanding of movement. Specifically, what are the primitive elements of dance (cf. phonology)? What are the rules of combination (cf. morphology/syntax)? What is the meaning of dance if any (cf. semantics)?The paper mainly focuses on the second question and examine some organizational principles of the mental representation of dance perception. In particular, the grouping structure of dance is explored based on Gestalt principles and musical structure.Hopefully, these first steps will ultimately lead to the elaboration of a theory of dance cognition, which should shed further light on cognitive systems by distinguishing between general cognitive properties and modality-specific or domain-specific properties.

The goal of this article is to demonstrate the existence of a synchronic interaction between binding and focus in French. The argument is based on the behavior of French possessive son propre (‘his own’) and shows that whether or not it behaves anaphorically depends on whether the pronoun son is focused or not. 

This dissertation consists of four sets of articles at the interface between syntax and semantics.The first set of papers deals with French possessive son propre ('his own') from a syntactic and semantic perspective and with the implications on binding theory and the theory of covert focus sensitive operators. The second group concerns the analysis of terms expressing identity and difference such as French même ('same'), différent ('different') or autre ('other'). The third set of papers tackles the question of reflexivization morphemes in French and Lakhota, and proposes a syntactic and unaccusative analysis of French se. Finally, the last and more heterogeneous set consists of an article that experimentally explores the semantic problem of quantifiers in object position, and a paper about syntactic characteristics of Latin parentheticals.

The starting point of this paper is the following observation: when a conjunction of singular quantifiers is the subject of a distributive predicate, singular agreement is much preferred, while plural agreement is obligatory when it is the subject of a collective predicate; however, a conjunction of referring terms always triggers plural agreement on the verb. This fact seems to challenge standard theories that describe agreement as a purely syntactic phenomenon.

Based on field work, I describe the reflexive markers used in Lakhota, and I provide arguments showing that reflexivization in Lakhota is a syntactic process rather than a lexical one.

The goal of this thesis is to explore the relation between intensification and binding in the light of French possessive son propre ('his own') and to show that these two modules of the grammar interact with each other. To this end, I argue that propre ('own') exhibits intensifying properties that have consequences on the binding properties of son propre ('his own').

The goal of this thesis is to examine parenthetical sentences in the Latin language of Cicero: I first show the syntactic constraints of insertion, and I then analyze the pragmatics of this construction in various texts of Cicero.

In this thesis, I examine non-relative clauses that depend on a noun in Latin. I first establish a typology of the clauses and the nouns involved in this kind of constructions, and I then analyze the relationship between them from a syntactic and semantic perspective.