THE CONCEPT OF CONNOTATION IN GREIMAS

Abstract

This article presents the partial results of a search for the occurrences of the concept of connotation in Greimas' work. In order to organize the obtained data, conceptual similarities as well as the possible relations with other current issues in the semiotics of Paris School were used as criteria. In this article, the occurrences of “connotation” will be discussed and interpreted under three specific theoretical perspectives, i. e. the concept of sens commun, veridiction and isotopies. The first one discusses the different meanings of sens commun and outlines the possible consequences of this ambiguity for Greimas’ study about the connotative semiotics of Hjelmslev presented in “Pour une sociologie du sens comun” (GREIMAS, 1975a). The second highlights the possibilities of working in terms of connotative and denotative isotopies issues related to the opening and closing game of the meanings operated by the relationship between the structure and the historicity of the text. The third one deals with the relationship between connotation and veridiction, especially what concerns the “culture's attitude towards its signs” according to Iuri Lotman's proposition resumed by A. J. Greimas. Rather than performing an exhaustive quantitative scanning, this work aims to propose a critical discussion about the role, even though a minor one, of the concept of connotation in Greimas' work.