Où se situe la phonologie ? La linguistique et la conjecture représentationnelle

Abstract

abstract : Modern linguistic theory, from Saussure to Chomsky, exhibits a conceptual unease with respect to the status of speech (S) vis-à-vis the linguistic (L). On the one hand, there is a general impulse to make a distinction in such a way as to exclude S from L. On the other, when it comes to the relation between them, that distinction is consistently undermined. This gives rise to a pervasive tension and inconsistency at the foundations of linguistics, most noticeable in the phonological domain. This article reviews the problem both generally and, more particularly, with special reference to the distinction and relation between the phonetic and the phonological. We outline a new conception of the relation between S and L, the Representational Conjecture. In terms of this conception of the relation, the distinction between S and L can, with consistency, be conceived of as a distinction between the non-linguistic and the linguistic.