Intégralement dans le champ des adverbes de complétude (totalement, entièrement, complètement, …)

In this paper, we study the french adverbs of completion totalement, complètement, entièrement and intégralement in the verbal domain, from a semantic point of view. Following Tenny (2000), we argue that completion adverbs with a quantitative value can only modify telic predicates (*regarder totalement le tableau / détruire totalement une ville). We also identify a qualitative use which doesn’t impose such a constraint (avoir totalement raison). Then, through the analysis of real exemples and of their typical context, we discuss the semantic properties of these different adverbs that are related in various ways to the expression of completion.