Le nom excuse en anglais : de la sémantique du « pas vraiment » à une approche interlocutive

In this paper, we try to define the linguistic identity of the noun excuse. After examining the definitions and glosses provided in the Oxford English Dictionary, we will suggest that the semantics of the noun relies on interlocutive (or speaker-hearer) polarization, at least in its most common interpretations (“apology” and “release of duty or obligation”). On this basis, we argue that it is possible to extend to the majority of nominal uses the hypothesis put forward in Margerie & Muller (2019) about the differences between two ritual expressions of apology and regret, i.e. excuse me and (I’m) sorry, a hypothesis which borrows from Douay & Roulland’s Théorie de la Relation Interlocutive (2014). This in turn raises the question of whether an analysis along these lines can account for less frequent uses, namely when excuse refers to a special card in the game of tarot, or in constructions like her excuse for a husband which are not even mentioned in the OED’s entries for the noun. Since excuse in such cases refers to a peripheral or marginal object or person, and implies a certain degree of fuzziness, we will first call on Antoine Culioli’s concepts of “notional domain” and “notional boundary” for explanatory purposes. However, we will then argue that an interlocutive approach might better account for the controversial or polemical nature of the semantics of excuse in the construction X IS (NOT) AN EXCUSE FOR Y. This will lead us to eventually reconsider the marginal uses in this light and thereby pave the way for a more unified analysis of the lexeme.