Le travail de cette thèse se situe dans le domaine de la sémantique nominale et porte sur un échantillon de noms dénotant les humains (NH) pendant les différentes phases de vie : bébé, enfant, adolescent, adulte, vieillard (N-[âge]). Elle poursuit un triple objectif. D’abord, il s’agit d’offrir une description linguistique fine d’un ensemble de N-[âge] dont le fonctionnement est resté méconnu jusqu’à présent. En démontrant leur caractère hybride – les N-[âge] dénotent à la fois des propriétés référentiellement essentielles et intrinsèquement transitoires – nous mettons en évidence des paramètres inédits pour la description des NH en général. Enfin, notre thèse explore la possibilité d’un élargissement notionnel du domaine aspectuel vers la sémantique nominale en interrogeant la notion de phase et en démontrant que l’ensemble des N-[âge] bénéficie d’une structure phasale. / This thesis research lies in the field of nominal semantics and focuses on a sample of nouns denoting humans (HN) during different stages of life: infant, child, teenager, adult, elderly (N-[age]). It is three fold. First, this works aims at offering a linguistic description of a set of N-[age] whose operation has remained unknown until now. Demonstrating their hybrid nature - N-[age] denote both referentially essential and intrinsically transient properties - we provide novel parameters for the description of HN in general. Finally, this thesis explores the possibility of notional extension of the aspectual domain to nominal semantics by questioning the concept of phase and by demonstrating that all N-[age] have a phasal structure.

本論文以語意學、認知語言學及心理語言學的觀點，探討中文名詞的多義現象。本篇論文討論詞彙多重意義的語言及心理語言表徵，並研究詞義如何在心理詞彙庫中被擷取。 文中藉由認知語言學者Tuggy（1993）所提出的認知語意架構，及詞彙語意學中「同形異義詞（homonymy）」、「一詞多義（polysemy）」及「模糊意義（vagueness）」等觀念之區辨，探索詞義之本質。本文所談之意義（sense）根據Ahrens（1999）之定義有以下三個特性：（1）意義非轉喻（metonymy）或部分/全體（meronymy）之延伸，但可以是隱喻性延伸；（2）意義之間的延伸關係無法由在同類名詞中直接以規律獲得；（3）除非特意，一詞的不同意義不會在同一語境中同時出現。 針對詞彙辨識歷程的語意效應，本論文有三大研究主題--意義數目效應、意義相關性效應及相對意義頻率效應。各效應之預測如下：「意義數目效應」認為意義數目較多的詞彙在詞彙判斷作業（lexical decision tasks）中比較容易辨識；「意義相關性效應」認為當一個詞的意義之間的相關性較高時，該詞的辨識時間亦會較快；「相對意義頻率效應」則認為一個詞意義之間頻率差異程度越小，該詞越有歧義之特質，也因此越容易辨識。 本研究旨在以實證方式探討這些語意向度在詞彙辨識歷程中所扮演的角色。由受試者提供200個中文名詞的意義並決定意義間的相關性；進行電腦詞彙判斷作業，得到辨識每個詞所需的反應時間；再由統計考驗反應時間來驗證各效應。 本研究結果發現只有「意義數目效應」達顯著水準，意義數目較多的詞彙在詞彙判斷作業中比較容易辨識。此一效應支持心理詞彙庫的隨機觸接模型（random access model）及平行觸接模型（parallel access model）並駁斥「序列搜尋模型（serial access model）」。 / This thesis studies the multiple senses of Chinese nominals from semantic, cognitive linguistic, and psycholinguistic viewpoints. It discusses the linguistic and psycholinguistic representations of a word's multiple senses, and the access of these senses in the mental lexicon. The nature of lexical meaning is examined by discussing lexical semantic notions such as homonymy, polysemy, and vagueness, and by introducing Tuggy's (1993) cognitive linguistic representation of a word's multiple lexical meanings. The "senses" of a word are defined according to the lexical semantic theory of Ahrens (1999) as having three properties: (1) A sense is not an instance of metonymic or meronymic extension, but may be an instance of metaphorical extension. (2) The extension links between two senses cannot be inherited by a class of nouns. (3) Senses cannot appear in the same context (unless the complexity is triggered). This thesis specifically looks into three semantic effects on word recognition, including the word's number-of-sense (NOS) effect, the effect of sense relatedness, and the effect of relative sense frequency. The predictions of these effects are as follows: The NOS effect predicts that words with more senses are recognized faster than those with fewer senses. The effect of sense relatedness predicts that words with more closely related senses are easier to recognize than those with distantly related senses. The effect of relative sense frequency predicts that words with equal sense frequencies are more easily recognized than words with unequal sense frequencies. This research aims at empirically verifying these three effects during the recognition of isolated lexical items. Subjects generate the senses of 200 Chinese nominals, and rate the relatedness among these senses. Lexical decision tasks are conducted to obtain the reaction times required to recognize each stimulus item. The semantic effects are verified by comparing the reaction times of different groups of experimental stimuli. The experimental results confirm only the NOS effect, giving support to the random and parallel access models of lexical access, and refuting the serial access model of the mental lexicon.