« Etes-vous la victime d’un “isme”? »: emploi nominal et référentiel du suffixe –isme

Abstract This article addresses the nominal use of the suffix -isme in French, as in the sentence “êtes-vous la victime d’un isme?” (“are you the victim of an ism?”). Using data from a media corpus, first I observe that there are occurrences where the suffix -isme is indeed a noun with a referential meaning (i.e. referring to extralinguistic objects), refering to doctrines, movements, religions or attitudes. Then, I observe that the suffix -isme is associated with axiologically negative realities (especially conflict) in its nominal use. From this information, I try to answer two questions: what is isme the name of and how to describe the negative assessment associated to it?