THE SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE VERB FAIRE
Samarqand davlat chet tillar instituti
Roman German tillari fakulteti
Filologiya va tillarni oʻqitish (fransuz)
2-kurs talabasi Mansurova Shahnoza
ABSTRACT: This article analyzes the semantic properties of the French verb faire and the causative function of the faire + infinitif construction. The study examines the polysemantic nature of the verb faire, its role as a complex predicate, and its role in expressing cause-and-effect relationships. The results show that the meaning of the verb faire is largely determined by context and that it is an important grammatical tool in French.
Keywords: faire, faire + infinitif, causative construction, polysemy, complex predicate, valence, French linguistics, grammaticalization, semantic analysis
INTRODUCTION
The French verb faire is characterized by its wide range of uses and its polysemantic nature. It represents work – action, while also expressing cause – effect relationships, and is considered an important grammatical tool in French, forming complex predicates and participating in many phraseological units. The Faire+ infinitive construction plays a crucial role in expressing causativity, and this construction involves a change in valence and a redistribution of actants. This article analyzes the main semantic features of the verb faire and its grammatical functions in French.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The semantics of a verb includes the semantic characteristics of the actions, states, and processes expressed by the verb. The main semantic feature of a verb is the meaning of action. In grammar, the meaning of action is widely understood. It represents not only physical action, but also state, mental change, biological process and existence. For example, verbs like venir, marcher indicate a real action, se tenir debout, se réveiller indicate a state, s’inquiéter, étonner indicate a mental (psychological) process, and fleurir, grandir indicate a biological process.
The common aspect of the verb is that all actions, states, and processes occur in relation to time. Therefore, the verb is a dynamic semantic unit. The meaning of the verb is related to the appearance, development or change of a certain sign, which is the main factor that distinguishes it from other parts of speech.
One of the most commonly used verbs in French is faire, which has several unique aspects. The French verb faire comes from the verb faire, meaning “to do” or “to make,” and is synonymous with about 30 French verbs. In this context, the verb faire is a very active verb in French. However, the verb faire is also used in French in all tenses and with linguistic devices.
An experiment was conducted to purchase a complex predicate for 71 children who were French-speaking speakers and 17 native-speaking adults. The children were divided into three age groups: 1) 25 children aged 3 to 4 years; 2) 21 children aged 4 to 5 years; 3) 25 children aged 5 to 6 years. Adults (managers and workers) have different extremes.
The selection of target verbs for our study was not arbitrary. This is conditioned by two main factors: 1/ the syntactic and semantic properties of verbs; 2/ the frequency of occurrence in verbal dummy constructions. Thus, we selected the following verbs:
1) intransitives wait and gather (agent inergatives); dance (action inergative) and drop (position shift) (Perlmutter’s Incuzative hypothesis, 1978, Levin and Rappaport, 1995), in which case we see whether our target children destroy the causative verb. to do (e.g.: sarute, go to drink my baby, I will dance my cat, ef. Sarkar, 2002:191).
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
the Faire + Vinf construction is analyzed as a complex predicate (Gaatone, 1976). In this structure, the verb faire serves as a causative (causative) auxiliary verb and carries grammatical information about tense, aspect and declension (TAM).
According to Tesnière (1969), the introduction of the verb faire expands the valence of the infinitive verb by one new actant — the causer (causateur). At the same time, the initial subject may be excluded from its primary syntactic position and occupy various syntactic positions: direct complement (objet), indirect complement (datif), or other indirect form (oblique).
Dixon (2000) and Novakova (2002) classify causative mechanisms from the most compact forms (synthetic, morphological, lexical) to the least compact forms (periphrastic constructions). In this classification, the faire + Vinf construction is placed between synthetic and analytic structures, that is, at an intermediate level.
ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The verb faire as a polysemantic verb
The verb faire is used in different semantic fields and its meaning changes depending on the context. For example, faire un travail means to do a job, while faire un gâteau means to create and prepare a cake. This is an example of the polysemantic nature of the verb faire.
Meaning of action and activity
We often use the verb faire to express general actions and activities in everyday life, such as faire ses devoirs, faire du sport, faire le point. In this sentence, the verb expresses a general action, not a specific action.
Causative (causal) meaning
One of the important semantic features of the verb faire is its use in causative constructions. The form faire + infinitif expresses the causation of an action to be performed by one person through another. For example: Il fait réparer sa voiture. Here, the person who is directly performing the action is another person.
Grammaticalized faire
Sometimes the verb faire loses its basic lexical meaning and acquires a grammatical meaning.For example, in compounds such as faire attention, faire partie de, the verb has a weakened independent meaning and provides the semantic integrity of the entire phrase.
Faire in phraseological units
We can also find the verb faire in many phraseological units: faire la tête, faire semblant, faire attention à. In these conjugations, the meaning of the verb is determined through a complete context and phrase.
The results of the analysis showed that the verb faire is one of the most active and multifunctional verbs in French. Its semantic possibilities are strongly dependent on context, providing economy and universality in speech.
CONCLUSION
This study has shed light on the semantic and grammatical properties of the French verb faire. The analysis showed that the polysemantic nature of the verb faire means that it can have different meanings in different contexts. In particular, the cause-and-effect relationship is expressed through the faire + infinitif construction, and this structure is characterized by the expansion of valence and the redistribution of actants. Also, the active participation of the verb faire in grammaticalized forms and phraseological units confirms its central functional role in French.
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