Du contact entre les langues au clivage dans la langue. Vers une anthropologie renouvelée

What is it about?

The major aim of this paper is to ofer an account of some results of investigations on language contact. I also aim at deconstructing the notion of ‘language contact’ going beyond the notion of ‘contact’. I attempt to analyze contact inside a language rather than contact between languages. This is relected in the term ‘splitting’, as a way of approaching a new set of issues and breaking new grounds. My empirical base lies beyond an exocentric view whose objective is to capture the essence of mixed languages or the dynamics of multilingual situations. I take an endocentric stance, focused on the construction of signs and the process of construction of meaning within the general space of signiication. My further objective is to propose a new dynamic view of semiotics, closely linked to the notions of boundary, system and representations as they are, reconditioned and simultaneously resulting from a predetermined analytic process. his has a potential of coming close to a Humboldtian perspective on the dynamic of languages, and of language.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Cet article propose un élargissement conceptuel en rapport avec la notion de ‘contact’ à partir de la synthèse de deux conférences : Construction sémiotique et saisie du « contact » entre les langues et dans la langue. Vers une anthropologie renouvelée au Colloque “he International Conference ‘Rethinking Contact Induced’ ” (Leyden, 9-11 June 2011) et Clivage et fonction du clivage: sémiotique interactionnelle, procès de construction des signes et subversion de la notion de ‘contact’ au Colloque “Langues en contact, le français à travers le monde / Languages in Contact, French throughout the World” (Halle-Wittenberg, 16-18 September 2011). Je tiens aussi à remercier Alexandra Aikhenvald, Georges Lüdi, Henning Schreiber et Andrée Tabouret-Keller de la pertinence de leurs suggestions et commentaires ainsi que du temps qu’ils ont passé à la lecture de ce texte.