摘要：Abstract : This paper is a contribution to the study of individual aspects of language, especially from the perspective of lexical and textual semantics. Our goal is to settle what can be called individual in linguistics. Thereby, our purpose is (i) to clarify the notions of idiolect and individual style, (ii) to provide a method of analysis based on clear-cut categories and (iii) to consider the implications of linguistic individuality as regards semantics, hermeneutics and stylistics. By means of an analysis of several definitions of idiolect, we first argue that a key distinction must be made, to understand the nature of this concept, between what remains normal and what is perceived as singular, both dimensions being together constitutive of each idiolect. Secondly, the issue of idiolect (and also that of individual style) suggests to discuss P. Koch’s proposals as regards Coseriu’s model of language activity, which will lead us to complete and reorganize this model with a specific language level dedicated to individual linguistics. Thirdly, to go deeper in this question, we show how different theoretical frameworks deal with the relation between idiolect and semantics (viz. referential semantics, literary hermeneutics and structural semantics). We particularly try to highlight the semantic conditions under which idiolectal variability can occur. Finally, a corpus-based study illustrates how interpretation manages to build individual significations and also precise the relationship between idiolect and style.
