Complétude et représentation paradoxale

Pierre Cotte considers the classic relationship between the main clause and the complement clause which it governs. He shows that linear order “main clause + complement” is just a formal construction whose surface hides the actual genetic processes involved in the construction of the utterance. His approach requires the integration of the linguistic information which is added at each stage as the construction of the utterance becomes more complex. In this way he makes use of cognitive principles. Paradoxically, the complement does not “complete” an incomplete grammatical entity but is redefined in terms of the main clause.