French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Bisconti, Le sens en partage - Dictionnaires et théories du sens, XIXe-XXe s.
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Le sens en partage - Dictionnaires et théories du sens, XIXe-XXe siècles
Valentina Bisconti
Tullio De Mauro
(Preface)
Publication date: 16/01/2017
Publisher: ENS (Editions)
Series: Langages
ISBN: 978-2-84788-852-2
EAN: 9782847888522
Page count: 402 p.
Can meaning be identified as the specific object of a single field of study? Long before the establishment of semantics in the 19th century, meaning was analyzed empirically by lexicographers. Is there a direct lineage here? Does linguistic semantics originate from monolingual lexicography? A constant dialectic—continuously reactivated over time and across different schools of thought—has persisted between semanticists and lexicographers due to the contested shared ownership of meaning as a common object, alongside a whole series of related questions: the status of the word, the articulation between language state and history, the tension between norm and usage, the choice between polysemy and homonymy, the role of the speaker in linguistic change, and so on.
This dialectic between empirical craftsmanship (lexicography) and scholarly knowledge (semantics) regarding meaning cannot be explained solely by the conditions in which the new discipline emerged or by its methodological uncertainties. A persistent distrust of dictionaries can be found among 19th-century philologists as well as 20th-century linguists, lexicologists, and semanticists working within theoretical frameworks as diverse as structuralism, generativism, and cognitivism.
Thus, the book explores the reciprocal methodological transfers between semantics and lexicography, demonstrating how interdisciplinary tension is a constitutive dynamic of knowledge about meaning.
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Contents:
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction. Meaning-sharing as an epistemological interest
I. The treatment of meaning in French lexicography of the second half of the 19the century. Conflicts between objectives and methods
Chapter 1. Émile Littré's Dictionnaire de la langue française: Limits of a model
1.1 Parameters of semantic description: state, history, and historical record
1.1.1 A dual microstructure
1.2 History as erudition and normative authority
1.3 Positivism: A dead end for lexicographical work
1.4 Order and disorder in semantic filiation
1.5 The practice of synonymy: Identity and difference
1.6 Three interpretations of linguistic change: History, organicism, and institutionalism
1.6.1 Philology and etymology: An exercise in historical induction
1.6.2 Innovation in language: Neology and neologism
1.6.3 Semantic change and pathology
1.6.4 Heritage and regimes of interpretation: The case of Émile Deschanel
1.7 Conclusion
Chapter 2. Meaning between language pedagogy, lexicology, and encyclopedism
2.1 Pierre Larousse's Grand Dictionnaire universel du xixe siècle: Language and encyclopedism
2.1.1 A dual microstructure
2.2 A new lexicography: Daguerreotypy or the description of contemporary language
2.2.1 A grammarian's artifact: The neology vs neologism dichotomy
2.3 From metadiscourse on meaning to semantic description
2.4 Lexicological method, or the premises of a synchronic study of signification
2.5 A dual conception of etymology
2.5.1 Lexicology and etymology: An exercise in semantic creativity
2.6 Synonymy as a propaedeutic to grasping word values
2.7 Conclusion
Chapter 3. The contribution of logic and rhetoric to the study of signification
3.1 The Dictionnaire général de la langue française: What regime of generality?
3.2 The study of signification between history and causality
3.2.1 Etymology as a spirit of system
3.2.2 The “higher reason” of semantic change
3.3 A genealogical model for the classification of meanings
3.4 Three approaches in the service of lexicography: Biology, logic, and tropology
3.4.1 Tropes between language and style
3.5 An algebra of meaning, or the modes of semantic change
3.6 Conclusion
II. Semantics, or the constrained birth of a discipline
Chapter 4. Laws and causes as criteria for establishing a science: A debate of ideas
4.1 A controversial question: The applicability of the notion of law to semantic facts
4.2 The antinomic foundations of semantics: Victor Henry's position
4.3 An unexplorable domain: The causes of semantic change and Arsène Darmesteter's theses
4.3.1 An attempt at classifying causality: Carl Svedelius
4.4 Language between conservation and revolution
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4.5 Words “in circulation”, or the struggle for meaning
4.6 Fine-tuning meaning: Value and function
Chapter 5. Meaning as an object of study: A problematic theorization
5.1 An essay in disciplinarization: Michel Bréal and his time
5.2 The semanticist confronted with the dictionary
5.2.1 The classification of words: Limits of the analogy with dictionaries
5.3 Linguistic change: From the reign of nature to the flow of history
5.3.1 The transformation of meaning between internal causes and intellectual laws
5.3.2 Opening up to the social dimension and external causality
5.4 Analogy: Creation and adjustment, system and norm
5.5 Notional reorganization: From synonymy to polysemy
5.5.1 The mechanism of figuration in semantics
5.6 The discovery of the speaking subject: A break with lexicography
5.6.1 Human semiotic activity: Words, signs, values
5.7 Meaning tested by syntax
5.8 What regime of generality for semantics?
5.9 Conclusion
Chapter 6. Lexicon, signification, and dictionaries in Ferdinand de Saussure's theory
6.1 Around the question
6.2 The Saussurean perspective and the consideration of temporality
6.3 Overcoming a lexicographical aporia: Language state and history
6.4 The semantic question and Saussurean historiography
6.4.1 Morphology as an instance of signification
6.4.2 The status of the word, or the limits of delimitation
6.5 An attempt at axiomatization: Value and synonymy
6.6 Challenging the proper meaning vs figurative meaning opposition
6.6.1 Rejecting figures, or why ellipsis does not exist
6.6.2 Theoretical progression: From ellipsis to abstract entities
6.7 Paronymic attraction tested by synchronic truth
6.8 Non-autonomy, extensibility of meaning, and the rejection of polysemy
6.9 The dictionary: An “admissible image” of Saussurean langue
6.10 Meaning, or the limits of generalization
III. Convergences and dispersion around lexical signification in the 20th century
Chapter 7. Semanticists and lexicographers in dialogue: An epistemological conflict
7.1 The renewal of semantics between history and structure
7.2 Methodological research in lexicology and semantics
7.2.1 Louis Hjelmslev: The place of lexicology, vocabulary instability, and the dictionary dead end
7.2.2 Georges Matoré's lexicology: From stylistics to “open structuralism”
7.2.3 Algirdas J. Greimas: From lexicology to structural semantics
7.3 A structuralist model of change: Eugenio Coseriu's historical semantics
7.4 A non-structuralist counterpoint: Tullio De Mauro's historico-descriptive semantics
7.4.1 Principles of a mini-semantics: Lexical instability, semantic indeterminacy, and autonymy
7.5 A first epistemological quarrel: “For and against semic analysis”
7.6 A second epistemological quarrel: Dictionary definition as a model of semantic theory
7.6.1 A generative model: Uriel Weinreich's descriptive semantics
7.6.2 A semiotics of the dictionary: Josette Rey-Debove's approach
7.6.3 Definition and categorization models: Prototypes and stereotypes
7.6.4 Meaning tested by the syntheticity of definition
7.6.5 Dictionary and encyclopedia in Umberto Eco's semiotic philosophy
7.7 From typology to meta-lexicography: Some disciplinary clarifications
Chapter 8. The permeability of lexicography to linguistic theories and its limits
8.1 Two options for lexicography: Structure and history
8.2 A structuralist lexicography: Jean Dubois's Dictionnaire du français contemporain
8.2.1 A synchronic semantic description
8.2.2 Synchrony and paradigmatic method
8.3 The “impossible dictionary”: Algirdas J. Greimas and the dictionaries of Old and Middle French
8.4 The Trésor de la langue française, or the strong comeback of history
8.4.1 The philological principle and the linguistic principle
8.4.2 History as contingency: Synchrony and diachrony
8.4.3 Polysemy and homonymy between distribution and componential analysis
8.5 A technical paradigm shift: From material to immaterial
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
The volume examines the theoretical and empirical tensions surrounding the study of meaning across different linguistic traditions. By tracing the evolving relationship between practical dictionary-making and formal semantic inquiry, the study highlights how scholars and lexicographers navigated questions of usage, historical change, and linguistic structure. The text considers major figures such as Émile Littré, Pierre Larousse, Michel Bréal, and Ferdinand de Saussure, illustrating how their respective approaches shaped our understanding of signification. Readers interested in the history of linguistics and the foundations of modern semantics may find this volume relevant.
The historical development of linguistic science often involves complex negotiations between empirical documentation and theoretical abstraction. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, various schools of thought engaged with the challenge of defining meaning as a distinct object of study. This work contextualizes these intellectual debates by examining the methodological transfers that occurred between lexicographical practice and emerging semantic theories. Through detailed historical analysis, the book illuminates the persistent dialogues and conceptual divergences that have defined the study of language and vocabulary over two centuries.