The meaning of lexical substitution in discourse

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how meaning is constructed by lexical substitution in discourse. It is proposed to show how each discourse constructs its own meaning by means of the lexical substitution along the cohesive chain. The theoretical perspective that bases the analyzes of this work is that of Argumentative Semantics, a theory proposed by Oswald Ducrot, Jean-Claude Anscombre and, more recently, Marion Carel. This perspective is based on the principle that the primary function of language is to argue and that language does not describe the world, but it recreates it. Thus, the proposal of this study opposes functionalist approaches such as Hasan (1989), who understand that language represents the world.