Meaning in French
Whereas, in Warlpiri, the meanings of words are not discussed in the same terms as the intentions of speakers, in French there is a close link between these two domains. The most common way of expressing ‘mean’ in French is the expression ‘vouloir dire’, which literally means ‘to want to say.’ To ask ‘what do you mean?’ in French is to ask ‘what do you want to say?’ Talking about meaning in French, then, inherently involves talking about volition (‘wanting‘), as in the following expressions:
As (19) and (20) show, this is even the case when talking of what words, phrases and non-linguistic things mean: as in English, the same expression is used to refer both to the meaning of language, and the meaning of nonlinguistic occurrences. Vouloir dire is not, of course, the only word available in French for the expression of ideas about meaning; the verb signifier (from the Latin signum ‘sign’ and facere ‘to make’) has a similar sense. Another contrast between French and English is that unlike in English, the French words that express the noun ‘meaning’ and the verb ‘to mean’ are not related. In French the noun ‘meaning’ is translated by the word sens, from which English gets the word ‘sense’, and which has a similar range of meanings: as well as referring to linguistic meaning, sens refers to the perceptual senses (sight, hearing, etc.), to a direct and intuitive grasp of something (e.g. a ‘sense’ of rhythm), as well as having the meaning expressed in English by saying that something ‘makes sense’. Just like vouloir dire, then, sens classes linguistic meaning together with certain inner, subjective processes of human consciousness; not, however, as in the case of vouloir dire, volitional ones, but ones connected with the faculties of perception and judgement.
