This paper proposes to explore the relationship between the concepts of translation register, polylogia and semiotic system. After a brief theoretical discussion, a corpus is analysed. The analysis focuses first on the enunciative and semiotic layering of Gerty MacDowell's monologue ( Ulysses, chapter 13), then on Auguste Morel's translation, with particular attention to the critical points at which the architecture of Joyce's text reveals itself most clearly.