On the French OU

Abstract

We study in this article the morpheme OU, which can be a conjunction as well as a relative pronoun which may introduce: a relative adjectival clause, a relative substantive clause, or an interrogative adverbial pronoun. We base our argument on the Psycho-mecanics of Language in order to show that the values of this morpheme in reality only correspond to one and the same movement of thought, which ranges from partial indetermination (with ou conjunction) through determination and indefinite determination (the former expressed with où relative pronoun introducing a relative adjectival clause, the latter expressed in a relative substantive clause) to total indetermination (with où interrogative adverbial pronoun).