I first encountered impersonality during childhood. Growing up in France, as early as I can
remember, I was amazed at the force of some very specific expressions that ruled my daily
interactions with an iron fist. The dreaded Qu'en dira-t-on?'What will they say?'kept me under
the ever-watchful eye of an unsympathetic judge whose negative comments would reduce
me to social dust. Equally worrisome, the peremptory Ça ne se fait pas!'This isn't
done!'invariably slammed the door on any attempt at dialogue following the denial of such …

Achard analyzes complex aspects of the French impersonals il, ça, ce, c', ceci, on, and so
forth, which, according to the cognitive grammar framework adopted in his analysis,
constitute a broad functional category. Thus, Achard rejects structural approaches, which
understood French impersonals as empty dummies that function as placeholders. Although
structural features play an important role in the distribution of French impersonals, Achard
argues that the structural features are only one aspect that applies to some but not to all …