Being ninety percent Lithuanian and ninety percent French, and extensive expression of Greimas' Lithuanian discourse

ENThe idea of this research is determined by Greimas’ assertion that his life is split into two isolated periods of living in Lithuania and France, and that he spends most of his mature life as a schizophrenic. Methodological basis for the paper is Brøndal’s concept of complex term and Hjemslev’s theory of intensive and extensive expression of meaning which gave basis for Greimas’ Structural Semantics and was implemented in his life project. Through an analysis of Lithuanian texts, namely, his paper published in the Lithuanian Diaspora’ liberal press, studies on Lithuanian poetry, different essays that appeared in the Lithuanian press during the period of independence restoration (1990-1991), letters and speeches in the documentary film Greimas (1991) by Saulius Beržinis, it is attempted to understand characteristics of the intellectual biography and personality. It is concluded that in order to describe relations among the meanings created by Greimas, not dichotomy principles but logic of the mythological participation structures suit better as preconditions of the triumph of the unpredictable reality over logical schematism. Greimas’ biographical experiences that urged to look for meaning, and his constant desire to maintain “communication of participant” are assumed to be the most important conditions that formed Greimas’ semiotic style and support vitality of his tradition around the world.