Signata (Jun 2022)
Modalités, scénarios modaux et discours programmateur : retour critique sur l’analyse greimassienne de « La soupe au pistou »
Abstract
This paper analyzes modality and modalisations in an emblematic programming (or injunctive) discourse: the recipe for “la soupe au pistou” (pistou soup). In a first part, comprising the theoretical framing, the article argues that modality is a consubstantial dimension of any act of referenciation. The approach to modalities is based on the semantics according to which the meaning of utterances in a given situation intrinsically combines the denotation of the object discourse and the enunciator’s point of view on the object, in such a way that any understanding of the meaning of the message requires the updating of these calculations/settings of meaning, through the study of referenciation strategies that make it possible to identify the various modal supports of a text. The article distinguishes between modalities, as a mode of characterization of an object discourse for (and not by) a given enunciator, and modalisation, as the locus of the discursive exploitation of said modalities and of the distribution of modal charges between the subjects/actors of the enunciation as well as between the subjects of the utterances. It is based on Gosselin’s modular theory of modality as well as on his work on the notions of modal zone and modal scenario. In a second part, the article proposes a critical reading of Greimas’ analysis of the “soupe au pistou”. The latter highlights the narrative programs that constitute an action-programming discourse, denying all relevance to modalities. Yet, the latter are very present in the recipe, whether it is the deontic and alethic modalities, which play an essential role, or the appreciative, axiological and volitive modalities.The third part of the article examines the essential and the background modalities, explicit or implicit, according to the various modal zones of the different parts of the recipe. It highlights the increasing importance of the background modalities that are the appreciative, axiological, and volitive modalities, according to a modal scenario of the search for excellence, which must be aimed at because it is good, praiseworthy, and desirable. This scenario is centered on the operator-subject called upon to fully invest himself or herself in the task in order to become the subject of a hyper-competence. However, the deontic and alethic modalities come under the modal scenario of the action-programming that must be followed because their order of succession is necessary. In short, the paper argues for a joint analysis of modalities and modalisations and shows that considering modalisation as the point of discursive exploitation of modalities has the advantage of highlighting the importance of the enunciative dynamics in the deployment of modalities in a discourse.
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