Explores the hypothesis that the meaning of a word, especially a noun, relates directly to the types of relationships that the speaker has to the various referents that the word lets him construct, and that the referents have with their environment. Polysemic, metonymic, and metaphoric uses then tend to become confused with the actual lexical…

The nominal imperative, which serves to give an order in nominal rather than verbal form (e.g., "Silence!") presents a little-studied case of alternation between presence and absence of determiner in a nominal syntagm. Analysis of a French language corpus allows development of hypotheses on the meaning of certain types of determiners, or…

If it is immediate, definite anaphoric reference of an indefinite syntagm "'un'+noun" in French (e.g., "un chien...l'animal") seems appropriate for an "unfaithful anaphor" (e.g., "un chien...l'animal") but not a "faithful" anaphor (e.g., "un chien...le chien"). This rule helps to identify…

Analysis of the French verb prefix "re-" finds its occurrence characterized not, strictly speaking, by meaning but by the variety of ways in which the verb itself and its prefixed form interact. Occurrences of "re-" are classified into five categories. Verbs not compatible with the prefix and several unusual cases are also discussed. (MSE)

It is argued that dictionary definitions of objects are enhanced by addition of usage information, sometimes idiomatic and sometimes indicating specific functions of the object. This lexical semantic approach is illustrated primarily with the example of the French word "boite." (MSE)