Contenu du sommaire : La langue française au prisme de la psychomécanique du langage. Héritages, hypothèses et controverses, sous la direction de Olivier Soutet

Linguistic analysis of intuition. This paper deals with the linguistic analysis of intuition (the immediate understanding of something without conscious reasoning or study). The theoretical framework is Gustave Guillaume's psychomechanics of language and mental approaches in the linguistics. However, the greatest influence of philosophy upon this topic is found in L. Wittgenstein's and H. Bergson's works. This is done by observing a great number of circumstances within the context of the intuitive understanding and statement. Three main issues are discussed : intuition of statement, heunstic intuition and analogical intuition. In cases where the (strictly) grammatical patterns have not been preserved, the intuitive approach has been identified.

Is it possible to represent chronogenesis by using the radical binary tensor ? This paper aims at making out the use of the "sublinguistic scheme" named radical binary tensor (tenseur binaire radical) in Gustave Guillaume's psychomecanics, particularly to represent chronogenesis (chronogenese), that is to say the process by which thought builds image tirne (image temps) in act of language (which ought to be told from speech act in pragmatics). Usually, in Guillaume's works, considering french verbal morphology, this process is represented by combining an horizontal vector (chronogenesis vector, strictly speaking) and three vertical straight lines -named chronothesis (chronothese)- namely three "interceptive prehensions" (saisies interceptives) which correspond to the three moods : (I) first prehension, infinitive and participles ; (2) second prehension, subjonctive ; (3) third prehension, indicative. The use of the radical binary tensor (which associates two tensions, a closing tension and an opening tension) to represent chronogenesis conduces to reconsider the relevance of the notion of mood and to propose an new organization of temporal paradigms.

'To say something about something or about somebody' and Gustave Guillaume's theory of incidence. The publication of G. Guillaume's manuscripts allows to observe the progressive refinement of his linguistic ideas. A close reading of these texts will help us to retrace this evolution regarding some important questions such as the theory of word genesis in French and that ofthe incidence (by which parts of speech are defined), particularly the internai incidence of the substantive. Meanwhile, we will examine the function ofthe article in the actualisation of the substantive. G. Guillaume's notion of extensity and the value given by the article to the noun phrase on account of context and extensity, agreement between substantive and article during the operation of producing a noun phrase. On the way, G. Guillaume's historical contribution to the study ofthe facts will be emphasized by means of quotations. In contrast, some divergent present usages of guillaumian works like incidence, extension and extensity will be discussed.

Following Saussure, Guillaume's theory of language does not integrate lexical semantics, because it looks orderless. First, we show that one can however reconstruct a cognitive theory of lexical meaning from the indications disseminated among his writings. Secondly, we present our own monosemic theory of Integrated Conceptual Schemes, wich may constitute a prolongement and a developpement of the guillaumian theory : we describe the cognitive and culture-based origine of components of meaning and, in respect of their origin and process of formation, we distinguish linguistic meaning from contextual values of discourse, so that the latte r ones do not have to be integrated into the former one.

Psychomechanics and evolution of significants : the case of negative coordinating conjunction in early modem French. This paper questions the relevance of psychomechanical descriptions in diachonical linguistics. In particular, it wonders if psychomechanics is able to explain the evolution of significants : that is to say, in the case of negative coordinating, the change from ne (the etymological form) to ni (a form which appeared in thirteenth century and replaced defmitely ne during the seventeenth century). Regarding this subject, psychomechanical specialists assume that the hypothesis of "one morphologized phonem" (in technical use of psychomechanics "un formant") [no labialized e / 1] (which can also be found in the couple se/si indicating hypothesis), is able to explain the distribution of ne/ni in early and middle French ; they also assume that this hypothesis is able to explain the over ail change from ne to ni in the history of French language. This paper demonstrates that on the other hand, the psychomechanical hypothesis does not fully explain the last phase of the competition between ne and ni during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. For this last phase of variation, this paper proposes a description which maintains the psychosemiological hypothesis of the psychomechanical theory only at the cost of a number of modifications of the theory.

The substantivation ofthe infmitive in Old French. In the first part ofthe article the infmitive is characterized in the whole verbal system and the generai theoretical parameters of this substantivation are brought out. Afterthis restatement the study is devoted to the substantivation of this mood and his fundamental characteristics in Old French, that is the possibility to have a complementation. A distinction is made between essential and accidentai substantivated infinitives. The first are characterized by morphological, syntactical and semantical criteria and seem restricted to fundamental zones of the human activities. The second, facultative, can have the characterization and complementation ofthe substantive and ofthe verb at one and the same time. They often are favoured by some conditions (use of the preposition de, verbal constructions, use of sanz point de) and express ail the functions of a noun. They often occurs as a synthetical form of thematization (condensed anaphoric recapitulation or cataphoric thematization) and as a preferential process of abstraction in the courtly and allegorie style ofthe 1 3th century. These possibilities and the range of these uses are more and more limited in the evolution, where French diverges in his typology ofthe other romance languages, and specially on and after the classical period, but the substantivation ofthe infmitive rises again actually - without complementation - in usingthe resources always available ofthe mood.

Linguistics and literary crtiism : psychomecanics and stylistic analysis. By intersecting, the history of literary criticism and the history of generai linguistics exhange their concepts. This paper proposes to exemplify this notion by showing how Gustave Guillaume's linguistic theories -particularly his concept of "language siginifed" (signifie de langue) and his hypothesis on the diachrony of synchronies- provide literary criticism with tools have rich heuristic potentialities.