la linguistique du signifiant : définition et problématiques

We present and analyze here a field of linguistics which has been barely theorized until now, that is to say the linguistics of the signifier. By “linguistics of the signifier” we mean those studies which express the hypothesis that there is, at various levels, a motivated link between the signifier and the signified. We will study from this point of view the Guillaumean theory of the “ signifié de puissance”, which assumes that a grammatical signifier has just one signified, the cognematics of Didier Bottineau, which assumes that some submorphemes correspond, in certain precise cases, to semantic invariants, and phonosymbolism, which assumes, again in certain specific cases, that the signifier reflects the signified.