Sur la signification de certains chiffres (exemples empruntés aux contes de Charles Perrault)
About the Significance of some Numbers (the Examples were Chosen from Charles Perrault's Fairy-Tales)

Summary/Abstract: The numbers express not only the exact and determined quantity (which is typical of numbers) but also they can convey ideas and forces that facilitate the decoding of a message. It depends on the context where these numbers appear. It is the context that lends them some subjective values. In this article we wanted to point out the use of the numbers bearing specific nuances in the context of a fairy-tale, a literary form that enables the semantic charge of the numbers to create a magical arithmetic and to draw the listener's/reader's attention. We shall emphasize the significance of some numbers from the linguistic and stylistic point of view. It is about the numbers that we often encounter in Charles Perrault's fairy-tales - either in prose or in verse. The examples are carefully selected and they are illustrative of our analysis.

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