Thèse de doctorat en Linguistique
Sous la direction de Richard S. Kayne.
Soutenue en 1987
à Paris 8 .
Cette these tend a etablir l'existence en metta d'une categorie grammaticale "topic" interne a la phrase. Adoptant dans une large mesure les propositions recentes de chomsky dans sa theorie du "gouvernement et liage," cette etude du metta integre cependant certaines notions de la grammaire du discours telles que "focus" "contraste" et examine les proprietes des elements: ka, ya, ka'a, et mei, analyses comme des operateurs. Il est demontre que ceux-ci ne peuvent apparaitre que dans la position "topic," et que tout deplacement en metta se fait d'une position non-topicalisee, vers la position "topic.
This thesis searches to establish that in metta, there is a grammatical category called topic in the sentence. This study adopts to a large extent chomsky's position developed in "government and binding" while it integrates certain notions of discours grammar such as focus, and contrast and examines the properties of the following elements ka, ya, ka,a and mei which are analysed as operators. It is shown that these trigger elements can only occur in the "topic" position and that movement in metta is from a non-topicalised position to a topic position.