Renversement de gouvernance sémantique dans le syntagme nominal en français

The semantic analysis of complex noun phrases (NP) is usually determined by the nominal nucleus. Adjectives and determiners complement the noun by adding pieces of information or changing the size of the expanded NP. This paper emphasizes nominal constructions in French where the semantic nucleus must be reassigned to units which do not operate as a syntactic nucleus of NPs. It first discusses what has historically motivated the progressive autonomy of the adjective from the noun. The study then reviews multiple aspects of quantifying and qualifying constructions in NPs, with particular consideration of metaphors. It analyses how some boundary sub-categories, participate in the semantic governance of NP: N2 in expressive binominal noun phrases (N1N2 or N1deN2), relational adjectives in (N1AdjR) groups.