Sémantique de la controverse : analyse d’un fragment du discours de Simone Veil à l’Assemblée nationale en 1974

Abstract

Most of the texts participating in controversies can be considered « argumentative », which implies that their analysis should focus on their persuasive scope. Yet, paradoxically, it is often noted that these texts are not intended to act on individual minds, but on the public space. Therefore, it becomes imperative to study the operations carried out by texts in that space, as well as to characterise the latter. In this work, we will use a framework that derives from these remarks: it describes the conceptual organisation of the controversies and, on the basis of a semantic analysis, the operations that texts, via utterances, carry out in the space of the controversy. This framework will be applied to a fragment of Simone Veil’s discourse at the French National Assembly in 1974, which had a crucial role in French controversy on abortion legalisation in the 1970’s. We will give special attention to the way the pair pourquoi – parce que (why – because) intervenes in the construction of the space of the controversy.

Keywords

• argumentation
• concepts
• controversy
• semantics