MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS AND QUANTIFICATION OF THE BIPOLAR MODEL OF THE NOUN PHRASE IN FRENCH

Abstract

The bipolar model provides a functional explanation of the position of an attributive adjective with respect to the noun it modifies in modern French. The model is based on the relative evaluation of the ratio situational value / referential value for each adjective. This single factor of a semantic nature might be bound, as shown by the acoustic-phonetic analyses, to some prosodic properties of the rhythmic group – properties having an objective, in particular psychological, basis that could prove language-universal. This study aims at providing empirical proof of the proposed hypothesis.