De la sémiotique pour penser la complexité de la communication interpersonnelle : l’approche sémiopragmatique des interactions sociales

This paper discusses the contribution of semiotics to the study of interpersonal communication within the field of Communication Studies, through the example of the “Semiopragmatics Approach to Communication” (Boutaud 1998, 2005 ; Frame et Boutaud 2010 ; Frame 2008, 2013). This approach distinguishes three separate levels of interpretative context : pre-existing cultural references (prefigured meanings), the social context of the situation at hand (configured meanings), and the emerging level of the encounter itself (meanings performed through “figuration”). By putting these three levels into relation with one another, the semiopragmatics approach places the emphasis not only on the way people co-construct meanings in a given interaction, but also on the way in which they co-construct the interpretative context itself, as it continually evolves throughout an encounter. This is a semiotic approach which takes into account social activity as a dynamic process