ÉQUIVOQUE HOMOPHONIQUE EN FRANÇAIS : POLYVALENCE FORTUITE ET AMBIGUÏTE VOLONTAIRE.

To obtain a joke with homophonic resources requires that ambiguity is perceived in the mind of the person you are speaking to. Therefore you bind him/her to choose one of the two (or more) potential meanings, and he/she is responsible for the -- right or wrong -- choice he/she makes. Three main rules explain the high number of sentences containing homophonies in French: the end of a word moves according to the syllabic structure of its environment; written -e- ; low or high number of syllables of prosodic groups. I analyse different cases where homophony may occur -- daily life, playing time, gender, age, job, leisure, cultural activities, place of birth, etc. -- to attempt to give responses to the following questions : Since when, where, when, who, for whom is it realized ? What are the means taken by speakers to 'make' them, and for what purposes? For the speakers, what are the differences -- if there are -- between deliberate homophonies and unintentional ones? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]