La fabrique du sigle : entre focalisation référentielle et (re)dénomination

The main goal of this study is to draw the distinctive semiotic and semantic features of acronyms in the lexical configuration of Contemporary French. Even though the aim of this text is not to present an empirical analysis, the examination in daily newspaper articles from France and Quebec across a 25-year time span (1987–2012) of the use of 18 acronyms and the phrase they come from, will provide support for the theoretical claims of the study. Historical, regional, and quantitative parameters have been considered, as well as the lexico-referential weight of the original phrase and the acronym. Other determining factors have been considered, in order to understand the use of specific linguistic forms: is the original phrase a lexical string on its own (cf. lexical unit)? Can this explain the fact that those phrases are reduced? The coexistence, and, where applicable, the distribution of an acronym and the linguistic strings it is associated with are discussed. We try to understand whether particular reasons can explain why original phrases corresponding to usual acronyms have fallen out of use, or, on the contrary, why and how they remain in usage.