Les transferts de représentations dans les langues (2) : de problème à sujet

Abstract

This paper deals with the recent transfers of the uses of French word problème to the word sujet, according to an intralinguistic approach (investigation of the limits of substitutability). The conceptual transfer appears as a result of a cultural transfer, which leads to an alteration of the representations. Nevertheless, the corpus illustrates that speakers are inclined to extend these transfers to set phrases and idiomatic expressions with problème, even if they break the concept carried by sujet.