Qu’est-ce qui distingue l’inversion absolue de l’inversion locative en français ?

Linguistics studies on full inversion in French do not clearly state a difference between locative inversion (LI) and absolute inversion (AI) in independent clauses. In this corpus-based study, I demonstrate the relevance of drawing a line between the two word-order phenomena. I first outline the different formal constraints shared by the two inversions, and then show that some properties typical of LI — which have been put forward in previous work- do not apply to AI. In a final section, I relate the formal properties of both inverted structures to two different deictic functions in written discourse. Both inversions imply a deictic reference to the on-going discourse, but whereas LI refers directly to the situation that is represented, AI refers to the discursive strategy of the discourse.