Dialogue between Technology, Statistics and Semiotic to an Approach to Texts

Abstract

The approach developed in this paper aims to verify the possibilities of qualitative and quantitative contents produced by the Table of Discrimination of Lexical Values as a database to the development of other approaches. This table is part of André Camlog’s instrumental methodology (1996), from University of Toulouse II, which is exclusively related to description and analysis of lexicons, texts, and discourses. Its information is produced by mathematical and statistic operations, processed through computer technology. By transforming texts into measured lists of words, it makes this information available to other approaches, independent of the process related to the approach. To investigate the length of this data application, one must consider the Table of Discrimination of Lexical Values as a resource of the Meaning Generative Process proposed by Greimas and Courtés (1983), and its levels: basic, narrative and discursive. Taking into account syncretic enunciation — on the one hand statistic data produced by technology; on the other hand, generative process in its more traditional form, this research concludes that lexical items, organized according to frequency and value related to its environment, are enough to support the semiotic approach to textual analysis, establishing safety of scientific description and validating the development of any methodology.