Expression et description : remarques sur les limites linguistiques de la phénoménologie

Because it was from the beginning inseparable from a radical descriptive programme, phenomenology had to account for the opposition between language and perception which is at play in all description. This paper aims to examine which materials Husserl exploits in the Logical Investigations in order to resolve issues this tension between intuition and signification imposes to phenomenology in general. The analysis of the "grammar" proper to the phenomenological description of experiences allows to question the contrast between expressing and describing, and thus leads to reevaluate the methodological function of expression in the Investigations. Far from being merely a part of his theory of meaning, Husserl's theory of expression should reveal the descriptive potential of phenomenology, whose task is to determine how we gain access to our proper experiences and in which "format" experiences are to be described.