Abstract: Giraudoux’s Supplément can be interpreted as an additional, metaphorical journey within the realm of language. There are three stages. First, the English colonizer must label—or relabel—the world for the benefit of the Tahitians through definition, paraphrase, antonomasia, and axiology. Next, he must escape linguistic dead ends, expanding the possibilities of language through syllepsis and antanaclasis. Lastly, he must free himself from the fixity of language by deconstructing proverbs and reinterpreting existing famous quotations.
