This article addresses the notion of linguistic meaning with reference to Kiswahili. It focuses particular attention on meaning typology, with the assumption that a discussion of meaning types can enhance the understanding and appreciation of linguistic meaning. The discussion takes its general conceptual orientation from the approach that considers meaning as use, whereby the unit of analysis is the speech act. This is a functional view of linguistic meaning, the tenets of which are contained in functional grammar. From a broader perspective, this article distinguishes conceptual and associative meaning then proceeds to deal with the individual types. Ultimately, five types of linguistic meaning are discussed: conceptual, connotative, social, affective and collocative. From the discussion, conclusionsabout the value of the typology for defining the concept and the scope of semantics are drawn.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'introduire la grammaire générative dans l'étude philosophique de la signification linguistique des langues naturelles, tout en l'articulant à une théorie contextualiste du sens. Nous montrerons d'abord en quoi les procédures syntaxiques sont autonomes de toute contrainte sémantique externe (thèse d'autonomie de la syntaxe), tout en contraignant la construction du sens linguistique (thèse du syntactocentrisme). Nous montrerons également qu'un filtrage contextuel des expressions grammaticales mais pas utilisables s'opère à un niveau post-syntaxique sur le résultat des dérivations syntaxiques. Dans un deuxième temps, nous montrerons que la syntaxe détermine la structure de la signification. Nous commencerons par critiquer les conceptions lexicalistes, selon lesquelles la structure de la signification dérive d'informations contenues dans les items lexicaux. Puis nous montrerons que les formes sémantiques des expressions sont des structures événementielles dont chaque élément correspond strictement à un élément de la structure syntaxique. Dans un troisième temps, nous montrerons que tandis que la structure interprétative est rigidement déterminée par la structure syntaxique, le contenu des termes mobilisés dans les expressions est quant à lui le résultat d'une interaction entre contenu conceptuel, structure syntaxique et filtrage contextuel. Cela s'accompagnera d'une conception des concepts comme entrées encyclopédiques comportant une multiplicité d'informations sur lesquelles s'opère une sélection locale de l'information pertinente en fonction du contexte. / The goal of this dissertation is to introduce generative grammar into the philosophical study of linguistic meaning in natural languages, while articulating it with a contextualist theory of meaning. First, we will show that syntactic procedures are autonomous from any external semantic constraints (autonomy of syntax thesis) while constraining the construction of linguistic meaning (syntactocentrism thesis). We will also show that the results of syntactic derivations that are grammatical but not usable are contextually filtered out at a post-syntactic stage. In a second part, we will show that syntax determines the structure of meaning. We will start by criticizing the lexicalist conceptions accordinf to which the structure of meaning derives from data included in lexical items. Then we will show that the semantic forms of expressions are event structures of which each element strictly corresponds to an element in syntactic structure. In a third part, we will show that while interpretive structure is rigidly determined by syntactic structure, the content of terms used in expressions is the result of an interaction involving conceptual content, syntactic structure and contextual filtering. This entails a conception of concepts as encyclopedic entries made up of a multiplicity of data on which a local selection of contextually relevant information operates.

This article addresses the notion of linguistic meaning with reference to Kiswahili. It focuses particular attention on meaning typology, with the assumption that a discussion of meaning types can enhance the understanding and appreciation of linguistic meaning. The discussion takes its general conceptual orientation from the approach that considers meaning as use, whereby the unit of analysis is the speech act. This is a functional view of linguistic meaning, the tenets of which are contained in functional grammar. From a broader perspective, this article distinguishes conceptual and associative meaning then proceeds to deal with the individual types. Ultimately, five types of linguistic meaning are discussed: conceptual, connotative, social, affective and collocative. From the discussion, conclusionsabout the value of the typology for defining the concept and the scope of semantics are drawn.