Apposition et métonymie adjectivales, figures d’une sous-énonciation ?

Abstract

Within the framework of a study of linguistic anthropomorphisms that apply an adjectival predicate from the subclass of psychological adjectives to an animal-referring noun, two configurations are scrutinised here: appositive constructions and metonymy. The corpus under analysis is drawn from the fictional works of Marie Darrieussecq. The hypothesis being tested is that these constructions involve a form of enunciative disengagement, of which they may even be markers. These instances of under-enunciation may elicit a euphemising reading interpretable in terms of an ethos of moderation, but equally they authorize a litotic reading (say less to suggest more). It can therefore be argued that we are dealing here not with a position but a posture of under-enunciation, a strategy of understatement that forces across an underlying point of view - animals are indeed the seat of emotions -, and that under-enunciative distancing combined with humour is designed only to pre-empt the anticipated accusation of anthropomorphism.

Keywords

• Enunciative Postures
• Under-enunciation
• Apposition
• Metonymy
• Psychological Adjectives
• Euphemism