Du sens et des signes dans l’enseignement de la grammaire

Abstract

This paper deals with the place given to meaning and to the semiological approach in the teaching of grammar. In the first part, it recalls the theoretical and methodological principles of the “renovated grammar” coming from the Plan Rouchette, then it examines the properties of the successive reference grammars developed in French-speaking Switzerland, as well as the analysis of three grammars proposing specific methods of rehabilitating the problematic of meaning. In a second part, it offers an analysis of school documents used in French-speaking Switzerland, which focuses on the way in which the object “grammar” is presented and conceptualized there, as well as on the criteria and methods of analysis adopted in the instructions readable in the content of the exercises. Finally, it sums up some Saussurian proposals relating to the essence and the extension of these two-sided entities that are the verbal signs, as elements likely to be exploited in the steps aiming to reassign meaning to a proper place in grammar.