8

From the newspaper:

Une proposition de loi – retoquée en 2012 par le Sénat – Cispa a elle été adoptée par la Chambre des représentants en avril.

Can I remove elle from the sentence? If so, what's the effect on the overall meaning? In sentences like this, is it more common to repeat the subject in the form of a personal pronoun or is it just personal taste?

|improve this question
  • 1
    La Cispa a, elle, été adoptée par la Chambre des représentants en avril. The "," (or "-") is mandatory because it replaces La Cispa a, quant à elle, été adoptée par la Chambre des représentants en avril. – AlainD May 30 '13 at 17:12
10

It's not mandatory, it's a way to put emphasis on the subject, most probably because there was previous mention of a rejected law proposal. It's always a pronoun which is used for the repetition and it is the emphasized form (moi, toi, lui, eux instead of je, tu, il, ils). Personally, I'd have put the elle between comas:

La proposition de loi Cispa a, elle, été adoptée par la Chambre.

Note that it's something different than the repetition of the subject, common, sometimes mandatory, in questions. There, one expect the subject to be after the verb but in some cases, for instance when the subject is too complex, the subject is before the verb and a pronom-de-reprise repeat it after.

|improve this answer
  • 2
    I would say the purpose of the pronoun is to express a contrast rather than just emphasis. – Stéphane Gimenez♦ May 28 '13 at 14:15
  • 2
    @StéphaneGimenez, in this case the emphasis is to mark the opposition, but I'm not sure it is the only case where that structure is used even if all the examples I can think of now are using moi-même and so on instead of just moi. – Un francophone May 28 '13 at 14:20

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.