Antoine Culioli, A Man in Language - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

Antoine Culioli, A Man in Language
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Antoine Culioli, Un homme dans le langage. Originalité, diversité, ouverture : Proceedings of the Cerisy-la-Salle Colloquium, June 2005

Edited by Dominique Ducard and Claudine Normand

Paris, Ophrys, 2006

ISBN 10 : 2-7080-1114-6
ISBN 13 : 978-2-7080-1114-

Publisher's Overview:

For over forty years, Antoine Culioli has been developing a framework known as the Theory of Enunciative Operations, which he defines as a linguistic approach aimed at studying language activity across a diverse range of languages, texts, and situations.
Long confined to the setting of the ENS seminar and reputed to be notoriously challenging to approach, this ongoing theoretical work on language has become accessible to a broader audience through a continuous stream of publications since 1990, particularly with the release of interview collections in which Antoine Culioli clarifies the various dimensions and stakes of his theory. His contributions, which have assumed a pivotal role in the history of linguistics, open up new horizons for other fields of research, from anthropology to neuroscience, and more broadly concern the humanities as a whole.
This wealth of interests and deep commitment to interdisciplinary dialogue secure him a distinctive, and arguably unique, place in contemporary intellectual currents. For all these reasons, it seemed essential to us to organize a colloquium in a setting ideally suited for collective reflection and discussion: the International Cultural Centre of Cerisy-la-Salle. The conference brought together logicians, philosophers, anthropologists, semioticians, translators, psychologists, and psychoanalysts, alongside thematic sessions addressing core questions in linguistic research, complemented by accounts tracing the history, foundations, and future trajectory of the theory.
We are delighted to present the proceedings of this colloquium to readers today. Rather than a formal tribute, this volume is intended as an invitation to engage more deeply with a rigorous and vibrant body of research.

Table of Contents:

Opening

Thresholds, Passages, Leaps, by Dominique DUCARD

Testimonial

A Pioneering Approach: The BCG, by Sophie FISHER

Encounters

Metalinguistics and/or Metalogic, by Jean-Blaize GRIZE

Metalinguistic Operations and Linguistic Traces, by Jean-Pierre DESCLÉS

The Articulation of Proper Nouns, by Pierre BOUDON

The Ordinary Utterance, by Michael A. SOUBBOTNIK

Endophasia within the Theory of Enunciative Operations, by Gabriel BERGOUNIOUX

A Psycholinguistic Model?, by Jean CARON

Enunciative Operations and Psychic Processes, by Laurent DANON-BOILEAU

Transitions and Embeddings, by Charles MALAMOUD

Language's Helping Hand to The Phenomenology of Spirit, by Jean-Pierre LEFEBVRE

Testimonial

On Recognition, by Denis PAILLARD

Linguistic Questions

Figures of the Enunciating Subject, by Annie MONTAUT

Impressive and Enunciation in French and Japanese, by Saburo AOKI

Interrogating Linguistic Forms 'Anchored' in Verbal Interaction, by Anne-Claude BERTHOUD

I, or the First Person Approached from a Phenomenological Perspective, by Danielle LEEMAN

Translation and the Functioning of Language, by Jacqueline GUILLEMIN

Verbs of Speech: Invariants and Specificities, by Alain DESCHAMPS

Remarks on a Few Prepositions, by Eric GILBERT

Culiolian Invariance, by Sarah de VOGÜÉ

Form, by Jean-Jacques FRANCKEL & Daniel LEBAUD

Envoi

Antoine Culioli's Theory as a Poetics, by Claudine NORMAND

This Is Not a Conclusion, by Antoine CULIOLI

Testimonial

Afterword, by Catherine FUCHS

    Dominique Ducard is Senior Lecturer (HDR) in Language Sciences at the University of Paris XII-Val de Marne. Claudine Normand is Honorary Senior Lecturer (HDR) at the University of Paris X.

    Antoine Culioli has developed a linguistic approach known as the Theory of Enunciative Operations, aimed at studying language activity across a diverse range of languages, texts, and situations. Over the course of more than forty years, this ongoing theoretical work has assumed a pivotal role in the history of linguistics and opened up new horizons for other fields of research, from anthropology to neuroscience, concerning the humanities as a whole. The International Cultural Centre of Cerisy-la-Salle provided a setting for collective reflection and discussion, bringing together logicians, philosophers, anthropologists, semioticians, translators, psychologists, and psychoanalysts.

    This volume presents the proceedings of the June 2005 colloquium, serving as an invitation to engage more deeply with a rigorous and vibrant body of research rather than a formal tribute. The contributions trace the history, foundations, and future trajectory of the theory through thematic sessions addressing core questions in linguistic research. Readers interested in contemporary linguistics, philosophy, and interdisciplinary approaches to language activity may find this volume relevant to their pursuits in the humanities.