Abstract

Our article aims to examine the analogical process implicit in the composition and structuration of compounds. Our approach is situated between analogical linguistics (Monneret, 2004, 2014, in press a and b) and cognitive psychology (Gentner, 1983; Clement, Gentner, 1991; Gentner, Markman, 1995, 1997; Gentner, Holyoak, Kokinov, 2001; Hofstadter, 2001; Hofstadter, the Fluid Analogies Research Group, 1995; Hofstadter, Sander, 2013). We analyse the concept of the regularization and categorization characterising analogy, compositionality question and words composition. This article develops three points: i) an introduction of composition as lexical need; ii) a study about Saussure and Bally's considerations; iii) the relation between analogy and composition through some examples in French language.