« Impossible nepagoloi » ou le jeu dans les dictionnaires d’associations évoquées par les mots

Abstract

Word association dictionaries are built on reaction to a given lexical stimulus (min 500 responses to one stimulus). Most reactions can be explained by logical relationships based on the meaning of the given stimulus. However, some of these reactions are provoked by the form of this lexeme, and depend on the desire of the participant in the experiment to play with words. In this paper we propose a typology of this kind of reactions: the joke can consist of a simple echo (homonym or paronym) of the stimulus, or in the combination of both. We also analyze doubtful cases, which may be due to an erroneous reading of the stimulus or a questionable spelling of the reaction, and discuss the possibility of taking into account puns in associative dictionaries, providing that they are built on spontaneous reactions to the stimulus, while a joke supposes a certain – event short - reflection.

Keywords

• French language
• word association dictionary
• joke