This thesis is concerned with the historical analysis of French idioms from both theoretical and methodological points of view. An idiom is considered as a figurative expression whose meaning is not equal to the sum of its components’ meanings. In the first part, after drawing distinctions between such terms as locution, expression or phrasème, I survey the key elements in the analysis of idioms: their syntax, semantics and lexical features. I discuss various theories to see how they can relate and be applied to a historical study. I deal first with the syntactic approach which describes the various grammatical features of idioms basing my analysis mostly on works by Gross. It shows that, while figurative expressions are often syntactically similar to non-figurative expressions, they do not allow much leeway in their morphological and syntactic variations because their meaning is closely linked to their form. However a grammatical description is not sufficient for a diachronic analysis of idioms. Secondly, I take a close look at semantic description as it appears in works by theoricians such as Weinreich, Greciano and Rey. In particular I show that it is necessary to put the idiom back in its context in order to grasp its real meaning. While not rejecting the rhetorical approach, this process allows us to avoid systematic assimilation of idioms as rhetorical figures. A diachronic analysis shows that an idiom can be a literary figure, a cultural figure, or a sociological one. Therefore its description must rely as much on a pragmatic approach as on a semantic one. The second part of my study adopts a methodological approach. The objective is to develop a method of analysis that can be applied to a lexicographical description of idioms. The originality of the study relies partly on the fact that the analysis is based on an electronic literary data-base as well as on formal dictionaries. Animal metaphors, nine of which are closely analysed, are chosen to illustrate the methodology. Each case study is divided into three main parts: the history and etymology of the idiom, its socio-cultural representation and implication and its linguistic description. Much emphasis is put on highlighting the ways in which the idiom becomes part of the text. In the last chapter of the thesis I develop a new descriptive model for a historical dictionary of idioms. The focus is to describe the expression with as much precision as is usual for words. The model is based particularly on works by Wartburg (FEW) and Mel’ëuk (Dictionnaire lexico-combinatoire). The main result of this study is to demonstrate that idioms need to be viewed as discrete linguistic units. For this reason they must be studied strictly in context. Another major contribution is that in many specific cases my research has allowed me to go further than other historical studies. An example is entre chien et loup whose origin can be traced back to a Hebrew text, and whose first use in a French text goes back to the very early 13th century. Lastly, the study of the idiom’s situational context shows us that phrasemes allow a connection to be made between language and culture, because they are often a linguistic reflection of a belief, saying, or folk tale.

This thesis is concerned with the historical analysis of French idioms from both theoretical and methodological points of view. An idiom is considered as a figurative expression whose meaning is not equal to the sum of its components’ meanings. In the first part, after drawing distinctions between such terms as locution, expression or phrasème, I survey the key elements in the analysis of idioms: their syntax, semantics and lexical features. I discuss various theories to see how they can relate and be applied to a historical study. I deal first with the syntactic approach which describes the various grammatical features of idioms basing my analysis mostly on works by Gross. It shows that, while figurative expressions are often syntactically similar to non-figurative expressions, they do not allow much leeway in their morphological and syntactic variations because their meaning is closely linked to their form. However a grammatical description is not sufficient for a diachronic analysis of idioms. Secondly, I take a close look at semantic description as it appears in works by theoricians such as Weinreich, Greciano and Rey. In particular I show that it is necessary to put the idiom back in its context in order to grasp its real meaning. While not rejecting the rhetorical approach, this process allows us to avoid systematic assimilation of idioms as rhetorical figures. A diachronic analysis shows that an idiom can be a literary figure, a cultural figure, or a sociological one. Therefore its description must rely as much on a pragmatic approach as on a semantic one. The second part of my study adopts a methodological approach. The objective is to develop a method of analysis that can be applied to a lexicographical description of idioms. The originality of the study relies partly on the fact that the analysis is based on an electronic literary data-base as well as on formal dictionaries. Animal metaphors, nine of which are closely analysed, are chosen to illustrate the methodology. Each case study is divided into three main parts: the history and etymology of the idiom, its socio-cultural representation and implication and its linguistic description. Much emphasis is put on highlighting the ways in which the idiom becomes part of the text. In the last chapter of the thesis I develop a new descriptive model for a historical dictionary of idioms. The focus is to describe the expression with as much precision as is usual for words. The model is based particularly on works by Wartburg (FEW) and Mel’ëuk (Dictionnaire lexico-combinatoire). The main result of this study is to demonstrate that idioms need to be viewed as discrete linguistic units. For this reason they must be studied strictly in context. Another major contribution is that in many specific cases my research has allowed me to go further than other historical studies. An example is entre chien et loup whose origin can be traced back to a Hebrew text, and whose first use in a French text goes back to the very early 13th century. Lastly, the study of the idiom’s situational context shows us that phrasemes allow a connection to be made between language and culture, because they are often a linguistic reflection of a belief, saying, or folk tale. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Twentieth-century writers, scholars and critics have formulated explicitly and illustrated systematically the doctrine that literary language is autonomous. The aim of our thesis is to analyse the scope and implications of this now widespread view of literary language, which we examine here with particular reference to twentieth-century French literature. Our study follows three main lines of inquiry: In the first part we analyse how-the belief in the autonomy of literary language came to be formulated. We then try to envisage such an autonomous literary language in practical terms. Finally we outline some of its broader implications for our understanding of literature. An analysis of the scattered doctrines of the Tel Quel group, dedicated to bringing about the semiotic autonomy of the literary text," reveals the existence of a philosophy of literature based on the premise that, in its very essence, the literary text is not meant to communicate or to transmit an intelligible message and is, in fact, not dependent on any pre-established norms. Since full consideration of a theoretical view involves as well an appreciation of its applicability to the real world, we examine in the second part of our study the theory of an autonomous literary language from a pragmatic point of view. Linguists will readily admit that, in a theoretical sense, every individual is free to create his own independent linguistic code; but they will also maintain that, in realistic terms, the utilization of such a freedom is "absurd," since the process of communication per se can exist only at a socialized level. One must therefore conclude that any theory which propounds the practice of an autonomous literary language is not meant to be taken literally but calls for a metaphorical interpretation. We have searched out this metaphorical meaning by attempting to determine at what precise level, the literary proponents of this doctrine depart, in their own writings, from what linguists have defined as the normal process of communication; in other words, at what level do their writings become incomprehensible to, for example, the educated French reader? It becomes clear in the process that if such literary works in fact need to be "deciphered" it is not because they possess their own private phonological, lexical and syntactical systems but rather because they do not rely on the conventional coherence of traditional narrative. Instead of deriving from a subordination of events in a hierarchy of causal relations, this "new coherence" presents the reader with no more than a simple juxtaposition of semantically related narrative elements. The subordination of narrative units in a cause/effect hierarchy is not essential to the reader's understanding of the linguistic code of a particular novel or work. It is, however, clearly an essential element of the process of communication for without it the reader cannot objectively perceive the context to which the work refers. But what we have labelled a "new coherence" implies the very absence of such a hierarchy essential to the process of communication. Consequently we are forced to the conclusion that the doctrine of an autonomous literary language is significant enough to require new definitions of some fundamental aspects of narration, as well as a radical change in our perception of the historical development of literature and in our cognition of the individual literary text. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

When Renaissance linguists took charge of the French language and its evolution, trying to define what French eloquence would be, they relied mostly on classical Greek philosophers' theories about language. Divine inspiration, as evoked by Plato, was in the ancient times opposed to Aristotle's art of oratory and its more technical approach. In the same way, during the Renaissance, Ciceronians promoted Aristotelian rhetoric, whereas their opponents, such as Erasmus or Montaigne, revived Plato's thesis. / Within this context, the present study is centred on two grammarians-philosophers living towards the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the next. In his Eloquence Francoise, Guillaume Du Vair propounded a conception of the Fench language inspired by the stoic theory of representation. Francois de La Mothe Le Vayer, on the other hand, refers to sceptic philosophers in orders to develop in his Considerations sur l'Eloquence de ce tems (1637) a theory of aestheticism based on doubt.

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Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished