Sémantique lexicale et phrastique : le sens compositionnel revisité

This article questions the application of the notion of literal meaning to sentence semantics. A short historical overview confirms the ambiguity of such a notion used to account at once for the different semantic values of words out of context and for their meaning in discourse, and advocates a better differentiation between word semantics and sentence semantics. A goal that can be reached if the notion of literal meaning is reserved for lexical items and the notion of compositional meaning is specified for sentences. Finally, a thorough examination of the so-called principle of compositionality within the framework of formal semantics reveal the vagueness of its definition and explains the permanent conflict with the principle of contextuality.