Généricité, analyticité et propriété : une philosophie en langue ?

This essay studies the statute and the functioning of the concept of property in linguistics. We will start from the hypothesis that every utterance denotes situations, that is, it consists in the attribution of one or more properties to one or more entities. This distinction between properties and entities does not necessarily coincide with linguistic dichotomy predicate(s)/ argument(s). After having distinguished different types of properties on the base of their linguistic features — especially temporal and aspectual — we will examine the possible relations between situations denoted by these properties and the real world. We will focus in particular, as regards to universal situations (generic utterances), on the problems concerning “genericity,” “analyticity” and “apriority.” Finally, we will approach the relation between speaker’s position (and/or his linguistic community’s one) and the situation evoked by his (and/or its) attribution of a property to one or more entities.