FORMES D ADRESSE ET DESIGNATIONS POLITIQUES DES DEPUTES AU BENIN : APPROCHE SEMIOTIQUE DE LA RECONNAISSANCE INSTITUTIONNELLE ET DE LA CONTESTATION SYMBOLIQUE

Political communication involves symbolic practices that make institutional statuses visible and structure relationships between actors. This article examines, in the Beninese context, the semiotic and interactional functions of the title "Honorable", commonly associated with parliamentary office, as well as those of the designation“appointed MPs”, used in discourses of political contestation. The theoretical framework draws on the approaches of Goffman, Saussure, Peirce, Austin, and Bourdieu. The study adopts a qualitative, document-based approach involving an analysis of eight press articles published between 2019 and 2022 and four journalistic interviews published between 2023 and 2026. The findings reveal two distinct phenomena: forms of address expressing institutional recognition and polemical designations that discursively challenge the representativeness of certain elected officials. However, neither the use nor the omission of Honorable is sufficient to establish political support or opposition. The conclusions remain exploratory and cannot be generalized.