Le nom pied et la notion de stabilité

Abstract

This article deals with the lexical meaning of the French noun pied. It aims at formulating a “semantic invariant” suiting this noun and offering a relevant picture of the semantic contribution it provides to French, regardless of its contextual meanings. After a short section giving an insight of our theoretical and methodological background, an overall description of the different acceptances of pied is drawn. Then, we develop a semantic analysis of the noun pied focusing on the notion of stability viewed as a way to express the idea of ‘standing in a vertical position’.