Retour sur les noms propres standard modifiés

Resumo

In this article, we intend to return to the polemic and controversial treatment of the modifi ed proper nouns. In the fi rst part of this article, we expose the main points of the «corrected» version of the analysis of proper nouns presented in Kleiber (1995, 1996), as well as the two main objections made to this analysis by Noailly (2000). In the second and third parts of the present work we examine profoundly each of these objections with a double purpose. First, we aim at proving that they can neither be correctly applied to our proposition nor may be considered a serious obstacle to it. Secondly, we present a general, but precise and unambiguous, overview of the opposition between bare proper nouns, also known as standard proper nouns or non modifi able proper nouns, and modifi ed proper nouns. This overview enables us to reach a theoretical stabi lity and serenity essential to the progression of our knowledge about proper nouns.