Sens contraire, ironie et négation dans le Dictionnaire universel de Furetière

Hélène Merlin-Kajman : Sens contraire, ironie et négation dans le Dictionnaire universel de Furetière Furetière's Dictionnaire universel is filled with metalinguistic commentaries indicating that words having an antithetical meaning (gegensinn) do exist for him. This fact allows us to renew the debate between psychoanalysis and linguistics about this problem which Benveniste considered as an illusion, and also about irony. Analysing Dictionnaire universel shows that we can distinguish two sorts of negation: the first one can be compared to forclusion: the opposite term (or person) becomes invisible because it is absorbed and rejected by the double meaning of gegensinn or irony, and the language functions here on the model of sovereignty. The second one gives a place to refuted term or person. It can be related with conversational pact, where each interlocutor maintains his value as an individualMerlin-Kajman Hélène. Sens contraire, ironie et négation dans le Dictionnaire universel de Furetière. In: Langue française, n°143, 2004. La négation en français classique, sous la direction de Claire Badiou-Monferran. pp. 111-126