After obtaining an Agrégation in grammar, he carried on his study of language under the direction of Joseph Vendryes. He went to Dublin for about ten years to study celtic languages and concluded his stay in Ireland by defending a PhD thesis, in 1957, at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Paris, on the syntax of the verbal noun in celtic languages.[1] His complementary thesis (necessary in France until 1968) was on the Greek nouns in -ΟΣ and -Α.[2]
In 1958, he was appointed as a professor at the University of Rennes where he stayed for the rest of his career (in the University of Rennes 2 after 1969, when the University of Rennes was divided between two universities). There, he met professor Olivier Sabouraud, a neurologist from the Faculty of Medicine, for a time chairman of the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital Rennes Pontchaillou. Together with Sabouraud, he began to study aphasia[3] and other language disorders, which conducted him to develop a new theory of human rationality, he called theory of mediation (or clinical anthropology).[4] His views on aphasia have given way to studies on grammatical impairment[5] and even computer-software assessment and rehabilitation of brain-damaged patients.[6][7][8] More recently, his theory of mediation has inspired new perspectives on apraxia and tool use.[9][10][11]
"Aspect de la poésie médiévale", Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé, n°2, p. 42-62, 1955.
"Le monde de François Mauriac", Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé, n°1, p. 133-158, 1956.
Les noms grecs en -ΟΣ et en -Α. Contribution à l'étude du genre en indo-européen, Paris, Klincksieck, 1959.
La syntaxe du nom verbal dans les langues celtiques, Paris, Klincksieck, 1963.
"On language and communication", Language and Communication, Volume 1, Issues 2–3, Pages 149–154. DOI:10.1016/0271-5309(81)90009-4
(with Hubert Guyard and Olivier Sabouraud), "A procedure to differentiate phonological disturbances in Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia", Brain and Language, Volume 13, Issue 1, May 1981, Pages 19–30. DOI:10.1016/0093-934X(81)90126-7
Du vouloir dire : traité d'épistémologie des sciences humaines, vol. 1 : Du signe. De l'outil, Paris, Livre & Communication, 1990. ISBN9782908740301
Du vouloir dire : traité d'épistémologie des sciences humaines, vol. 2 : De la personne. De la norme, Paris, Livre & Communication, 1991. ISBN2908740400
Du récit au discours : propos sur l'histoire du droit, Bruxelles, De Boeck-Université, 1994. ISBN2804119130
Leçons d'introduction à la théorie de la médiation, Anthropo-logiques 5, Louvain-la-Neuve, Peeters, 1994. (Now available in PDF format)
Pour une linguistique clinique (dir.), Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 1994.
Du Vouloir dire. Traité d'épistémologie des sciences humaines. Tome 3, Guérir l'homme. Former l'homme. Sauver l'homme, Bruxelles, De Boeck Université, 1995.
Raison de plus ou raison de moins : propos de médecine et de théologie, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 2005 ISBN9782204076524
^H. Guyard, O. Sabouraud, J. Gagnepain, "A procedure to differentiate phonological disturbances in Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia", Brain and Language, Volume 13, Issue 1, May 1981, Pages 19-30. doi:10.1016/0093-934X(81)90126-7
^Thomas Ewens(1992). « Human Sciences and Art Education: The Theory of Mediation », Design For Arts in Education, Volume 93, Issue 6 (now Arts Education Policy Review). DOI:10.1080/07320973.1992.9935585
^Hubert Guyard, Véronique Masson and René Quiniou, "Introducing artificial intelligence into aphasiological data analysis: Answers", Aphasiology, Volume 4, Issue 6, 1990, 631-635. doi:10.1080/02687039008248514
^Hubert Guyard, Véronique Masson, René Quiniou and Emmanuel Siou, "Expert Knowledge for Acalculia Assessment and Rehabilitation", Neurospychological Rehabilitation, 1997, 7(4), 419–439. doi:10.1080/713755545
^François Osiurak, Christophe Jarry, Philippe Allain, Ghislaine Aubin, Frédérique Etcharry-Bouyx, Isabelle Richard, Isabelle Bernard, Didier Le Gall, "Unusual use of objects after unilateral brain damage. The technical reasoning model
", Cortex, Volume 45, Issue 6, Pages 695-792 (June 2009). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2008.06.013
^François Osiurak, Christophe Jarry and Didier Le Gall, "Grasping the affordances. Understanding the reasoning. Toward a dialectical theory of human tool use", Psychological Review, Volume 117, Issue 2, p. 517-540. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019004
^François Osiurak, Christophe Jarry, Didier Le Gall, "Re-examining the gesture engram hypothesis. New perspectives on apraxia of tool use", Neuropsychologia, Volume 49, Issue 3, Pages 299-312 (February 2011). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.12.041