Skip to main content

Semiotics in France

  • Chapter
  • 198 Accesses

Part of the book series: Topics in Contemporary Semiotics ((TICSE))

Abstract

French semiotics came into being in the 1960s, following a new reading of the works of Louis Hjelmslev and helped notably by the publication in BSL (1946)1 of a deepened presentation of Hjelmslev’s Prolegomena to a Theory of Language by A. Martinet which was quickly followed by an English translation of the book. Thus the origin of French semiotics is to be found in the researches of French structuralism, which for its part can be understood as the development of all that had been achieved in the linguistics schools of Prague and Copenhagen, reaching into new fields such as comparative mythology (G. Dumézil), anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss), psychoanalysis (Jacques Lacan) and literature (Roland Barthes).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. A. Martinet, “Au sujet des fondements de la théorie linguistique de L. Hjelmslev,” Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris, 42 (1946), 19–42.

    Google Scholar 

  2. J. Dubois, Grammaire structurale du français (Paris: Larousse 1965), 1: Le Nom et le pronom.

    Google Scholar 

  3. F. de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale, nouvelle ed. (Paris: Payot, 1967).

    Google Scholar 

  4. A. J. Greimas, “L’Actualité du Saussurisme,” Le Français-moderne, No. 3 (1956), pp. 191–203.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Glaude Lévi-Strauss, Structures Elémentaires de la parenté (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1949).

    Google Scholar 

  6. R. Barthes, Le Degré zéro de l’écriture (Paris, Seuil, 1953), p. 24.

    Google Scholar 

  7. A. J. Greimas, “Differents niveaux d’analyse sémantique,” compte-rendu de la séance du 19 Novembre, 1966 (SELF).

    Google Scholar 

  8. J. C. Milner, “Quelques reflexions à propos de la notion de ‘lexis’ et de la nature contradictoire du langage,” in his Arguments Linguistiques (Paris: Marne, 1973), p. 219ff.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Glaude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologie structurale (Paris: Plon, 1958), p. 349.

    Google Scholar 

  10. See for instance, A. J. Greimas and J. Courtes, Sémiotique, dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage (Paris: Hachette, 1979), p. 91, 288, 415, etc.

    Google Scholar 

  11. A. J. Greimas, “La Mythologie Comparée,” in his Du Sens (Paris: Seuil, 1970), p. 132.

    Google Scholar 

  12. International Journal of American Linguistics, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Claude Lévi-Strauss, “La Structure et la forme,” Cahiers de L’Institut de Science Économique Appliquée, No. 99 (1960). Now included in his Anthropologie structurale II (Paris: Plon, 1973).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Claude Lévi-Strauss, “La Structure des mythes,” in his Anthropologie structurale (Paris: Pion, 1958), p. 227.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ibid, p. 239.

    Google Scholar 

  16. A. J. Greimas, in Herman Parrei, Discussing Language (The Hague: Mouton, 1974), p. 76.

    Google Scholar 

  17. In Greimas’s terminology phonemes are made up of bundles of phemes (distinctive features) and phemes in binary opposition are what relate phonemes to one another. Phemes thus constitute the semiotic elements in the formal construction of phonology in which they are, however, not manifest, but immanent.—Ed.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Ibid, p. 327, par. 6.

    Google Scholar 

  19. A. J. Greimas, interview in Pratiques, 11/12 (1976), 5.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Greimas, Dictionnaire, p. 345.

    Google Scholar 

  21. See Claude Lévi-Strauss, “L’Analyse structurale en linguistique et en anthropologie,” Anthropologie structurale, p. 37ff.

    Google Scholar 

  22. See in the present article, sect. II F., The Notion of a Semiotic of the Natural World.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Louis Hjelmslev, Prolégomènes à une théorie du langage (Paris: Minuit, 1971), p. 71.

    Google Scholar 

  24. A. J. Greimas, interview in Structures élémentaires de la signification. ed. Frederic Nef (Brussels: Complexe, 1976).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ibid., p. 19.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hjelmslev, p. 36.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Dictionnaire, p. 103. Lévi-Strauss, Mythologiques I (Pion: Paris, 1964), p. 346.

    Google Scholar 

  28. B. Pottier, “Recherches sur l’analyse sémantique en linguistique et en traduction mécanique,” Travaux de Linguistique et de littérature de l’Université de Strasbourg (1963), pp. 107 – 138.

    Google Scholar 

  29. A. J. Greimas, Sémantique structurale (Paris: Larousse, 1966), p. 42ff.

    Google Scholar 

  30. See note 19.

    Google Scholar 

  31. To quote only some recent examples, an important place is given to semic analysis in A.J. Greimas, Maupassant: la sémiotique du texte: exercices pratiques (Paris: Seuil, 1976), pp. 27, 30ff.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Jacques Geninasca, “La Poele et le tamis,” in Documents du Groupe de Recherches Sémio-Linguistiques de L’EHESS [École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris], No. 1 (1979) [Hereafter Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS], p. 33.

    Google Scholar 

  33. François Rastier, Essais de sémiotique discursive (Tours: Marne, 1973), p. 45.

    Google Scholar 

  34. A. J. Greimas and F. Rastier, “Le Jeu des contraintes sémiotiques” published in English in Yale French Studies, No. 41 (1968), under the title: “The Interaction of Semiotic Constraints.” Included in Greimas, Du Sens, (Paris, Larousse, 1970), p. 135ff.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Greimas, Du Sens, p. 137.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ibid., p. 161.

    Google Scholar 

  37. H. Reichenbach, L’Avènement de la philosophie scientifique (Paris: Flammarion, 1955), p. 192.

    Google Scholar 

  38. See the critical analysis of this point by P. Ricoeur in “La Grammaire narrative de Greimas,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, No. 15 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  39. Cf. Courtes, Lévi-Strauss et les contraintes de la pensée mythique (Paris: Marne, 1973), p. 117ff.

    Google Scholar 

  40. A. J. Greimas, Semantique structurale (Paris: Larousse, 1966), p. 207.

    Google Scholar 

  41. J. Courtés, Lévi-Strauss, p. 151ff.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Plato, Symposium, 202–203.

    Google Scholar 

  43. In its French meaning, “generativist” implies the reconstitution of all semiotic operations necessary for the codification of a meaningful message; cf. Thomas Pavel, “Modèles generatifs en linguistique et en sémiotique” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, No. 20 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  44. Du sens, p. 159.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Dictionnaire, s.v. “Transformation”: par. 5, p. 401.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Greimas, Du sens, p. 39.

    Google Scholar 

  47. P. Claudel, La Ville, version 2–377/23, as quoted by J. C. Coquet, Sémiotique litteraire (Paris: Mame, 1973), p. 153.

    Google Scholar 

  48. The dramaturgic metaphor is recurrent in Tesnière’s grammar.

    Google Scholar 

  49. A. J. Greimas, “Un problème de sémiotique narrative,” “Les Objets de valeur,” Langages, 31 (1973), 13ff.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. J. C. Coquet, “Les Modalités du discours,” Langages, 43 (1976), 64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Ibid, p. 70.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Françoise Bastide, “Approche sémiotique d’un texte de sciences expérimentales,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, 7 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  53. Ivan Darrault, “Pour une approche sémiotique de la thérapie psycho-motrice,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, 8 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  54. A. J. Greimas, “La Soupe au pistou,” Documents G.R.S.L. 5 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  55. J. Courtés, Introduction à la sémiotique narrative et discursive (Paris: Hachette, 1979), p. 7.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Lucien Tesnière, Éléments de syntaxe structurale (Paris: Klincksieck, 1959), Chap. 25–27.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Ibid., chap. 49 (9).

    Google Scholar 

  58. Cf. Anne Hénault, “Narratologie, sémiotique générale,” (Les Enjeux de Semiotique, 2,) (Paris: P.U.F., 1983), Chap. IV.

    Google Scholar 

  59. A. J. Greimas, Du sens, pp. 157–183.

    Google Scholar 

  60. A. J. Greimas, “Description et narrativité,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, No. 13 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  61. 60 Dictionnaire, s.v. “Configuration,” par. 8, p. 60.

    Google Scholar 

  62. Jacques Geninasca, “Mise en clair des messages. Analyse du recit et analyse du discours poétique,” in his Le Lieu et la formule (Neuchâtel: Ed. de la Baconnière, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  63. Dictionnaire, s.v., “Conversion,” p. 72.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Thomas Pavel, “Modèles génératifs en linguistique et en sémiotique,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, No. 20 (1980).

    Google Scholar 

  65. J. Courtes, Introduction, p. 45.

    Google Scholar 

  66. J. B. Grize, in Grammars and Descriptions (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1977).

    Google Scholar 

  67. It is true that Saussure criticizes in advance any “naive realism,” including that which pertains to the nonlinguistic sphere.

    Google Scholar 

  68. A. J. Greimas, “Conditions d’une sémiotique du monde naturel,” Langages, 10 (1968); “Pratiques et langages gestuels,” reprinted in Du sens, pp. 49–91.

    Google Scholar 

  69. E. Benveniste, “Sémiologie de la langue,” in Problèmes de linguistique générale II (Paris: Gallimard, 1974), pp. 43–67.

    Google Scholar 

  70. Even as a provisional practical concept. This attitude is characteristic of the “New Psychology” as led by Jacques Mehler of the CNRS, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  71. See note 52.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Sémiotique de l’espace, ed. Jean Zeitoun (Paris: Denoel-Gonthier, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  73. Alain Renier, “Sémiotique de l’architecture,” Documents G.R.S.L. EHESS, No. 10 (1979).

    Google Scholar 

  74. C. Miereanu, “Text Komposition, voie zéro de l’écriture musicale,” thesis, Université de Vincennes, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  75. R. Barthes, “Rhétorique de l’image”, Communications, 4 (1964).

    Google Scholar 

  76. Ibid, p. 2.

    Google Scholar 

  77. J. M. Floch, “Sémiotique poétique et discours mythique en photographie. Analyse d’un nu de Boubat,” Prépublications d’Urbino, No. 95 (June 1980); “Kandinsky bricole sa composition IV,” Communications, 34 (December 1981); “Sémiotique plastique et langage publicitaire,” Documents G.R.S.L., EHESS, No. 26, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  78. F. Rastier, “Comportement et signification,” Langages, 10 (1968), 78.

    Google Scholar 

  79. Cf. Essais de sémiotique poétique, ed. A.J. Greimas (Paris: Larousse, 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  80. Anne Hénault, Enjeux II, chap. 5.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Felix Thurleman, “Trois peintures de Paul Klee, essai d’analyse sémiotique,” Thèse de 3me cycle, (Paris: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  82. Biblical exegesis offers semiotics a wide field of application. Cf. A. and D. Patte, Pour une exégèse structurale (Paris: Seuil, 1978); Groupe d’entrevernes—Signes et paraboles, (Paris: Seuil, 1977); and the review called Sémiotique et Bible, Centre pour l’analyse du discours religieux (C.A.D.I.R.), Lyon.

    Google Scholar 

  83. E. de Kuyper, “Pour une sémiotique du spectaculaire,” and E. Poppe, “Analyse sémiotique de l’espace spectaculaire,” two theses in the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1986 Plenum Press, New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Hénault, A. (1986). Semiotics in France. In: Sebeok, T.A., Umiker-Sebeok, J. (eds) The Semiotic Sphere. Topics in Contemporary Semiotics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0205-7_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0205-7_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-0207-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-0205-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics