A constructional account of French -clé 'key' and Dutch sleutel- 'key' as in mot-clé / sleutelwoord 'key word'

International audience ; The article studies the status of French clé 'key' and Dutch sleutel 'key' which are recurrent in complex nouns such as mot-clé / sleutelwoord 'keyword', notion-clé / sleutelbegrip 'key notion' and figure-clé / sleutelfiguur 'key figure'. In spite of the semantic similarities between the two elements, both occurring in similar compound-like constructions, it is shown that the degree of cohesion of N-clé and sleutel -N widely differs. More particularly, whereas sleutel forms cohesive NN compounds, clé can be observed in adjectival contexts, in the same way as its Englis... Mehr ...