É. Pauly, La Polysémie. Réflexion théorique, méthodologique et application à la lexicographie - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

É. Pauly, La Polysémie. Réflexion théorique, méthodologique et application à la lexicographie
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Émilie PAULY - La Polysémie. Réflexion théorique, méthodologique et application à la lexicographie. L'exemple des verbes aller, partir et tirer en français contemporain, L'Harmattan, 2010.

  • EAN13: 9782296129733
  • 38 €
  • 417 pages.

Publisher's description:

Polysemy holds a prominent place in contemporary linguistic research. This book aims to provide an overview of the discussions surrounding the topic since Bréal. It evaluates the contributions of various theoretical frameworks: historical semantics, Saussurean linguistics, the structuralisms of Hjelmslev, Pottier, Greimas, and Rastier, the theory of semantic forms by Cadiot and Visetti, North American cognitivism, Guillaume's linguistics, Jacqueline Picoche's theory of potent signifieds, Culioli's enunciative linguistics, and constructivism. The objective is to define a rigorous and immanent theory and methodology that can serve as a framework for analysis. These are applied to three verbs: aller, partir, and tirer, whose identity and principles of variation are determined after examining and comparing their entries in five major lexicographical references: the Grand Robert, the Grand Larousse de la langue française, the TLF, the Lexis, and the Dictionnaire du français usuel. This is followed by proposed dictionary entries—specifically definitions—designed to remedy the shortcomings identified in existing dictionaries by better highlighting the unity of the polysemes described and providing a clearer view of their semantic specificity and usage boundaries.

Author's biography: Émilie PAULY holds a Ph.D. in Language Sciences. She is a lecturer at the University of Nanterre and Paris Descartes University, where she defended her doctoral thesis in semantics in 2009. She is also an associate member of the MoDyCo laboratory (CNRS UMR 7114).

Polysemy, the capacity of a single lexical unit to possess multiple related meanings, has long been a central concern in semantic studies. Since the foundational work of Michel Bréal, scholars have sought to reconcile the fluidity of word meaning with the structural requirements of language systems. This book, La Polysémie. Réflexion théorique, méthodologique et application à la lexicographie. L'exemple des verbes aller, partir et tirer en français contemporain, surveys diverse theoretical frameworks, including Saussurean linguistics, structuralism, cognitivism, and enunciative linguistics, to establish a methodology for analysis.

The work evaluates the entries for the verbs aller, partir, and tirer in five major French dictionaries: the Grand Robert, the Grand Larousse de la langue française, the TLF, the Lexis, and the Dictionnaire du français usuel. It proposes new dictionary entries intended to clarify semantic unity and usage boundaries. Readers interested in the intersection of formal semantic theory and the practical constraints of dictionary construction may find this systematic evaluation of lexicographical methods relevant to their work.