La notion de polyphonie et le subjonctif

Résumé

THE NOTION OF POLYPHONY AND THE SUBJUNCTIVE

The notion of linguistic polyphony has become an important tool of linguistic analysis in the last years. One of its theoretical problems is to define polyphony in relation to kin notions, especially dialogism. Another problem is the source of polyphony which we can find either in constant language forms en langue or only in actual given uses en discours taking the role of the context into account. In this paper, we deal with these issues through a concrete example in French, the subjunctive form. The conclusion we draw from this analysis conforms with the constructivist approach according to which linguistic forms do not have a constant meaning by themselves but only a “potential” to build a meaning through their participation into interactions with other linguistic forms and communication factors.