Changer and its major synonyms between syntax and semantics:: the sorting of French verbs in perspective

The dictionary Les Verbes francais allows a thorough analysis of the polysemy of most verbs. A close look at its index shows the importance of the division of the headword entry performed by the authors and leads one to wonder about the combination of different syntactic and semantic critera on which these decompositions are based. We focus on the different facets of the verb changer because of its double peculiarity. (1) Although it is the typical representative of the generic "T" class for changes, it displays 19 entries. Thus we assume that the criteria of agent selection are decisive, as suggested by research on this verb by J. Picoche, B. Pottier and J.J. Franckel (closed integral 1). (2) On the other hand, the primary synonyms for changer do not share this syntactic ubiquity and generally predict specific types of changes (closed integral 2). The paper finishes with contrasting examples in the lexical entries of changer in Les Verbes francais and in two other electronic dictionaries (the Dictionnaire Integral and WordNet-Fr). In these works the predicative notion of changer appear's to be conceptually different according to the properties of agents (closed integral 3).