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The question is on de précis as highlighted in this passage from Camus's The Stranger.

Je me suis souvenu dans ces moments d’une histoire que maman me racontait à propos de mon père. Je ne l’avais pas connu. Tout ce que je connaissais de précis sur cet homme, c’était peut-être ce que m’en disait alors maman : il était allé voir exécuter un assassin. Il était malade à l’idée d’y aller. Il l’avait fait cependant et au retour il avait vomi une partie de la matinée.

Question

Am I right to think that it modifies ce (or perhaps tout ce)?

Background

I believe it is an instance of the de + adjective construction that was covered in this other post. I just want to make sure de précis is not some special phrase with a different syntactic role.

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    Good answers have already been made so I'm not adding mine but, to clarify: it's exactly what you think it is, and not a special phrase. Replace "précis" with any adjective that makes sense in context (in the masculine singular) and the sentence still works.
    – Pwassonne
    Apr 24, 2016 at 20:19

3 Answers 3

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It's another example of partitive marking on an adjective, but in this case, it is obligatory.

Je veux une réponse (*de) précise

After vouloir, and most verbs, you can't have de.

J'ai quelques objectifs (de) précis

With avoir, and other verbs of possession, the addition of de is optional and semantically motivated. With de, you're implying you have other objectives that aren't precise; without de you're not considering those other objectives.

Qu'est-ce que tu as fait *(de) beau aujourd'hui ?

C'est quelqu'un *(de) bien

Il y en beaucoup *(de) fatigués

Ce qu' il a fait *(d')intelligent, c'est d'avoir refusé ce prêt.

When an adjective qualify a relative, indefinite or interrogative pronoun (in bold in the examples above), de-marking is obligatory. This is syntactically, rather than semantically, motivated.

In your quote, précis modify [Tout ce que je connaissais], a phrase headed by the complex relative pronoun ce que and thus has to be marked with de.

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Tout ce que je connaissais de précis ... = Tout ce que je connaissais qui soit (qui était) précis ...

de précis ne modifie pas mais précise tout ce que (je connais peut-être d'autres choses, mais pas précises ...).

C'est la même construction que le post indiqué.

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  • I believe your distinction between modifier and préciser tracks what is called the nonrestrict and the restrictive qualifiers? That is, de précis here is not characterizing what has already been fully identified, but is part of the identification (specification)?
    – Catomic
    Apr 25, 2016 at 4:01
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In english it is said in the way of "what I knew (of this man) precisely", or "what I precisely knew of this man".

Referring to the exactitude of their knowledge.

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    Ça ne répond pas à la question.
    – None
    Apr 24, 2016 at 17:03

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