1Instability and theory of semantic forms Starting from the case of prepositions

This paper analyzes some of the principles according to which it is possible to build an analogy, or even a continuity, between language and perception. Several misleading options are identified, arising from: (i) erroneous models of perception, (ii) the non-taking into account of polysemy as a fundamental property of language, and (iii) the inability to allow the necessary interactions between discourse, and the most interior level of ‘linguistic schemes’. Starting from the example of prepositions, we challenge all these difficulties, in order to put forth general semantic principles, applicable to all categories of words and constructions. The key question of the relation between spatial and less- or non spatial uses of words will lead us to come back to the gestaltist and phenomenological theories of perception and action, which still now offer irreplaceable insights. An immediate illustration is given with the semantics of nouns in French. We then sketch a radically dynamical theoretical framework, which gives a fundamental role to the mathematical concepts of instability. On this basis, the construction of semantic forms can be distributed between three layers of meaning, or ‘stabilization and development phases’, named motifs, profiles, and themes. Taken together, they shape linguistic structure and semantic activity. They apply in exactly the same way in lexical as well as in grammatical semantics. And they are also conceived in the perspective of being integrated more tightly into a global ‘textual ’ semantics. Table of contents Instability and theory of semantic form