Abstract
In French criminal law, the various procedural statuses of (alledged) offenders are highly nuanced: suspect, témoin, témoin assisté, mis en examen, prévenu, accusé , etc. The concepts operationalised in this respect in the codes (Code pénal and Code de procédure pénale in partic ular) are not systematically defined, but the oppositions that structure this terminological field can easily be approached with the help of contexts and cotexts (the study of collocations proves very promising in this respect). The same is true of the opposition that is the focus of our research (prévenu vs. accusé). e two notions are culturally marked: our study will explore the differences in use (and therefore in conceptualisation / designation) of the two terms in French, Swiss and Canadian criminal law, while evoking the intercultural Romanian equivalents of the terminological system from which they derive.