The chômeur, in the context of
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
, is an element of a sentence that has been
syntactically "demoted" from the nucleus to the periphery of a
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
. The term comes from the
French word for "unemployed". In a
passive
Passive may refer to:
* Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive
* Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works
* Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
sentence, the
agent
Agent may refer to:
Espionage, investigation, and law
*, spies or intelligence officers
* Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another
** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...
is a chômeur, having been "demoted" from the central or nuclear function of
subject. For instance, by changing the sentence ''Dogs attack the postman'' into ''The postman is attacked by dogs'', one transforms "dogs" into a chômeur. The concept was introduced and used extensively in
relational grammar
In linguistics, relational grammar (RG) is a syntactic theory which argues that primitive grammatical relations provide the ideal means to state syntactic rules in universal terms. Relational grammar began as an alternative to transformational gra ...
. The term was suggested by the linguist
Colette Craig
Colette Grinevald (born 1947) is a French linguist. She earned her PhD from Harvard University in 1975 and joined the newly created Linguistics department at the University of Oregon in 1977. Grinevald has written grammars of Jakaltek Popti' and ...
.
See also
*
Arc pair grammar In linguistics, arc pair grammar (APG) is a theory of syntax that aims to formalize and expand upon relational grammar. It primarily builds upon the relational grammar concept of an arc, but also makes use of more formally stated ideas from model ...
Sources
* Perlmutter, David M. (Ed.). (1983). ''Studies in relational grammar 1''. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Grammar
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