En conséquence, le sexe supérieur en beauté, comme en courage dans les souffrances maternelles, reconnaît et déclare, en présence et sous les auspices de l’Être suprême, les Droits suivants de la femme et de la citoyenne.Frame-setfunction: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: undetermined · scope: wide · target: meta English gloss: Consequently, the sex superior in beauty and in courage through maternal suffering recognizes and declares the following rights of woman and the female citizen, in the presence and under the auspices of the Supreme Being. The declaration formula claims a speaking position for women; publication alone does not confer legislative authority.
La femme naît libre et demeure égale à l’homme en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondées que sur l’utilité commune.Assertionfunction: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: undetermined · scope: wide · target: outward English gloss: Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only on common utility. The text asserts a normative principle. It can also be read as a proposed declaration of the political order that ought to exist.
Le but de toute association politique est la conservation des droits naturels et imprescriptibles de la femme et de l’homme : ces droits sont la liberté, la propriété, la sûreté, et surtout la résistance à l’oppression.Frame-setfunction: declaration · orientation: reality · motive: undetermined · scope: wide · target: meta English gloss: The purpose of every political association is to preserve the natural and imprescriptible rights of woman and man: liberty, property, security, and above all resistance to oppression. Naming the purpose of political association supplies a criterion by which existing institutions can be judged.
Le principe de toute souveraineté réside essentiellement dans la nation, qui n’est que la réunion de la femme et de l’homme : nul corps, nul individu, ne peut exercer d’autorité qui n’en émane expressément.Assertionfunction: assertive · orientation: reality · motive: undetermined · scope: wide · target: outward English gloss: The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation, which is the union of woman and man; no body or individual may exercise authority that does not expressly emanate from it. The definition includes women in the source of political authority. Whether readers accept that definition is a separate question.
The divergences
The declaration formula names rights as if speaking with constitutive authority. One reading treats it as a Declaration; another treats it as an Assertion and a proposal to change the political frame. They differ on function. The author’s publication is documented; legal enactment cannot be inferred from its declarative grammar.
The text expands the nation’s composition to include women and men. A narrow reading evaluates that definition in isolation; a wide reading hears a challenge to institutions that exclude women. The historical address supports the wide reading, while the author’s private motive remains undetermined.
The English glosses help readers follow the French text, but the filing should be checked against the French. Translating reconnaît et déclare as recognizes and declares preserves the two verbs; treating both as a single assertion would lose the claim to constitutive force.