This paper presents the results of a study associating linguists and psychologists interested in the representation of the meaning of lexical items. The different theories proposed in the literature are discussed : semantic primitives, componential analysis, schemas... A general conception of a cognitive analysis of meaning is proposed : The Applicative and Cognitive Grammar. In this theory different levels of representation are defined : primitives which are the basic components of the description of meaning, semantico-cognitive schemes which are organizations of semantic primitives and which represent a given acceptation of a lexical item in a given context, cognitive archetypes which represent the structure of the different acceptations ...