Plurisémie, intégration sémantique, sous-détermination: rendre compte des sens multiples en emploi

Abstract

The aim of the text is to present some of the mechanisms which have been identified in linguistic semantics as leading to "multiple senses". After introducing the notion of plurisemy and contrasting it with polysemy, it thus describes "semantic integration" (i.e. the way semantic constraints associates one with another), using multiple examples, and shows how the diversity of constraints which have to be satisfied implies the coexistence within interpretation of various interpretative strata, but also how the satisfaction of a single constraint may take various forms and thus lead to multiple meanings. Different strata which have been identified so far (namely morphemic, constructional, contextual, prosodic comments) are then described, while it is also shown the inexistence of anything that could be called "sentence meaning", for if sentences do introduce constraints on interpretation, the way these constraints can be satisfied is not introduced by the sentence. It is finally shown that i) within a pool of constraints, each constraint actually drives the interpretation of the others; ii) and that as a consequence, far from being a marginal or peripheral phenomenon, both the diversity of meanings and the superposition of interpretative strata must be recognized for what they are, namely an open window into the real nature of the mechanisms which govern interpretation.