Contenu du sommaire : Diversité de la (des) science(s) du langage aujourd'hui [Figures modèles et concepts épistémologiques] sous la direction de Simon Bouquet

Unification-based (or constraint-based) grammars have developed in the last 20 years as alternative models to the main theory of generative grammar. Initially syntax oriented, they now inspire works in phonology, morphology and semantics. In being completely formalized, they appear as the true inheritors of the generative program of Chomsky 1957. They are also building a bridge with computational linguistics and psycholinguistics.

The aim of this article is to show that as far as French semantics is concerned, the main recent theories can be characterized in terms of epistemological choices. A classification is then intended on the base of epistemological claims, that leads to establish unlooked-for points of similarity. Moreover, it shows that apart from terminological differences, most of such theoretical possibilities had been already considered in former developments of semantics.

This paper presents the epistemological foundations of the theory developped by Antoine Culioli and his team, underlying three main aspects: 1) the operations of enunciation (grounding on the inner organization of the utterances); 2) the operation of location, as the origin of the constituent operations of an utterance; and 3) invariance and variation, dealing with the diversity of natural languages on the one hand, and with the identity and the variation of morpho-lexical items on the other hand. This presentation leads to an understanding of the main trends now developping within the framework of this theory.

Classical scholarship has determined our image of classical texts that it edited and explained. What can it afford to our understanding of language? Purpose of this paper is 1) to situate philology among the sciences of language 2) to present the critical hermeneutic of Jean Bollack 3) through few examples from different authors of the Centre de recherche philologique (on Heraclitus and Hesiod above all) and 4) to sketch some problems concerning the epistemology of linguistics and the relations between philology and philosophy.

Within language sciences, the gradual recession of objectivism was marked by the growing use of the concept of context, especially in semantics and pragmatics. This concept has a challenging effect, marks on one hand the breaking with the positivist principle of compositionality, and introduces also the question of situation. The context problem allows to distinguish the logical-grammatical tradition, centered on sign, from the rhetorical-hermeneutical tradition, founded on text.

The topic of this paper is the concept of "genre" (style/manner) shown as related to an implicit theory of textual meaning — according to a pragmatical view-point based on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.