La forme du sens : Le cas du nom et le mode du verbe

It is the relationship between form and meaning that needs to be reconsidered in a more radical way to understand the intent of the Book, i.e. Sībawayhi’s Kitāb. In fact, even the analyses that perceive the cardinal aspect of the theory of government remain dependent on this fundamental postulate concerning the government/form connection: They overlook the scope of this theory regarding modal values. In this article, an attempt will be made to show that the hypothesis of homogeneity is not, in fact, possible to support if one claims that language is form. However, the notion of “form” must be understood in the sense conferred upon it by Saussure in the famous proposition. The relevant opposition for grasping the arguments of the Book in their proper resonance is not form/meaning, but form/substance. Meaning itself lends itself to form. Or, in other words, the formal in the Book includes both the syntactic and the semantic. In the Book, there is no duality of “form” on one side and meaning, in the sense of the speaker’s intention or some other notion, on the other side; instead, the theory of government itself is based on semantic analyses and takes into account both syntactic operations that are semantic or related to enunciation. In sum, it is wrong to believe that the theory of government deals only with form while neglecting meaning: It addresses the very form of meaning itself. This is what is attempted to be shown in this article.