L’Adjectif Substantif et Aspects de la Définitude dans l’écriture de Kourouma

Abstract

The Absolute Adjective and Aspects of Definitude in Kourouma’s writing

When a non-substantive word is provided with determinants specific to the name, it is said to undergo substantivation and then becomes a substantivized word. The latter therefore receives a determination, the variability of which could be assumed as a function of ambient enunciative parameters. If this is the case, then it would be important to have an idea of the variation of this determination. We then postulate that the stronger the determination, the stronger the definition and vice versa. On this basis, we have tried to make a projection on the very determinants which participate in the substantivation of the adjective and on the way in which the determination plans the definiteness. We rely on semantic-discursive and pragmatic-discursive considerations. Kourouma's writing is a panel that has not yet finished fascinating linguists as the innovations have been resounding, disconcerting but at the same time stimulating. Some excesses have indeed been considered boldness and it is under these that adjective substantivation is addressed at Kourouma with an objective which is to situate its enunciative impact in the author's discourse. He makes such use of it in his novel production that he does not fail to attract attention. The analysis is based on syntactico-semantic, pragmatico-discursive (inspired by enunciative theories) and polyphonic (from argumentation in the language (AD)) methods. The substantivation is constructed, in general, by means of adjective determinants and articles. At Kourouma, articles are the first producing element of adjective substantivation because of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic resources that facilitate the integration of the nominal adjective into the multiple circuits of literary discourse. Perceived by some as a support for the word that they determine by transforming it into a syntactic constituent, articles are, from a semantic perspective, considered as a contribution of the word by others as they act as a reference operator. Anyway, pragmatically, their definitness as well as their undefinitness in the nominal adjective are all instructions that inform about the intuition of the enunciator and that organize his discursive dynamic at Kourouma.