This article explores fundamental issues related to the phenomenon of meaning. Different theories are analyzed from the point of view of the external world, of the human element and of the language itself. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that these approaches can be brought to the point of mutual compatibility, rather than that of mutual exclusion, and that a theory of meaning needs to take all these angles into account in attempting to grasp this complex domain.

reference; metaphor; text; descriptive theory of meaning; causal theory of meaning; discourse analysis; discourse theory; artificial intelligence; theory of rationality; cognitivism; conceptual blending; metaphorical blending