Mental verbs: valency taxis (French evidence)

Abstract. This paper describes mental verb groups, distinguished based on their temporal orientation manifested in the first place in taxis multi-clause constructions. Three groups of mental verbs are identified: 1. Opinion verbs comprising a large number of mental verbs with broad temporal orientation, i. e. ability to refer to any temporal plane: the past, the present, or the future (this paper only considers two of them, penser ‘think’ and croir ‘believe’). Complex sentences with these verbs can comprise taxis constructions of simultaneity, anteriority, or posteriority. 2. Memory verbs reflecting past events (se rappeler ‘recollect, remember’, se souvenir ‘remember, recall’, oublier ‘forget’). Complex sentences with these verbs comprise anteriority taxis constructions, with anteriority expressed in dependent clauses by finite perfect forms or by perfective infinitives. 3. Verbs with future orientation (prévoir ‘foresee’, attendre ‘wait’, espérer ‘hope’) expressing anticipation, expectation, or hope. Complex sentences with these verbs comprise taxis constructions of posteriority expressed in dependent clauses by finite verbs in future / future-in-the-past forms or by present / ​imperfect subjunctives (also in posteriority meaning), or by dependent telic-verb infinitives. Tables 1 — 3 summarize the findings and reflect the logical options for taxis construction generation with verbs of each of the above groups. The paper suggests that all semantic descriptions of verbs with narrow temporal orientation to the past or to the future should reflect this fact.