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GENEVIÈVE CLÉRICO: Some classical grammarians' conception of ellipsis and the syntax of concord. Linacre, Sanctius, Lancelot, Du Marsais and Beauzée ail made use of ellipsis in the various parts of linguistic analysis (morpho-syntax, lexicology, semantics) and they all suggested highly interesting theoreticaljustifications for its «foundation». First, a few salient points on «reconstruction» and «suppletion», key elements in the organisation of «grammaire générale», are reviewed. This is followed by a more specific study of the potentialities of ellipsis applied to the syntax of concord, since the use of ellipsis for complement government is more generally known. Is is a fact that the restitution of a basie canonical form by rewriting, controversial though it may be, is more readily accepted in the treatment of syntactic concatenation and of intra-propositional relations than in concord phenomena, just as well described by syllepsis, the only figure of substitution that these grammarians still include in their methodological framework. We test the usefulness of ellipsis for a satisfactory treatment of «concord through meaning» (conceptio), or to account for the contrast between «generic» and «specific» terms. We are led to conclude that ellipsis is unable ta throw light on certain linguistic facts.

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