1 8 J- A. Fontaine, 



matically speaking, correct, and both express an action, show- 

 ing that there ought to be no difference between the two 

 auxiHaries. 



Littre in his dictionary says that " Elle a accouche heu- 

 reusement," "Elle est accouchee depuis un mois," are faulty 

 locutions. Why ? Because the Academy says so, and be- 

 cause M. Littre asserts that a accouche expresses the action, 

 and est acconcJice the condition. Compare parallel expres- 

 sions in Old French : — 



Ci-dessous gist estendue et couchee 

 Une qu'amour si bien vaincue avoit 

 Que plusieurs fois elle en fust accouchee. — St. Gelai, 197. 



According to M. Littre, such a locution also is faulty, because 

 plusieurs fois elle en fut accouchee expresses an action, as well 

 as die a accoucJie depuis un mois. Yet we have a more strik- 

 ing instance of what M. Littre could have called a faulty locu- 

 tion in Joinville, Histoire dc St. Louis, p. 218: "La Royne 

 acoucha d'un fil qui ot non Jehan. Le jour meism qiie elle 

 fu acouchic,'' etc. Is not the verb accoticher us^d here in the 

 same way as in Littre's "vicieuse locution," quoted above, 

 and in Chabanneau's ^^ elle a accouche ce matin'' ? Hence it 

 is apparent that the rule requiring etre to denote condition 

 and ai'oir action is based on modern usage, and, I dare say, 

 has nothing to do with the historical development of the 

 auxiliary usage itself. 



It would take too long to quote in detail what other gram- 

 marians have said about the use of auxiliaries in the intransi- 

 tive verbs in French. Suf^ce it to say that they have divided 

 the neuter verbs of the French conjugation, numbering about 

 six hundred, in the following three classes, viz. : first class, 

 comprising verbs conjugated regularly with avoir (about five 

 hundred and forty) ; second class, comprising verbs conju- 

 gated with etre exclusively, viz. : — 



aller avenir deceder disconvenir entrer partir rancir tomber 



arriver avorter dechoir echoir mourir provenir redevenir retomber 



atterrir choir devenir emaner naitre rabougrir ressortir venir 



48 



