Jean Pouillon et le mystère de la chambre chinoise

Abstract

In an article published in 1984, Jean Pouillon claimed that a better rendition of a text heard can be achieved when contents is ignored and attention is focused only on syntactic structure. I examine the implications of this statement in the light of Pouillon’s earlier Temps et Roman, a theory of the novel published in 1946. The fact is that if we know for certain what meaning to attach to categoremes (content words) we hardly know how to express the meaning of syncategoremes (structure words). What is the part of meaning being conveyed by syntax, i.e. what is that part of meaning which is unrelated to