| Summary: | Centre (center) and milieu (middle) are Nouns of Internal Localization (NIL). They combine with the preposition à to form complex locative preposition phrases such as NP0 au milieu de NP1 (at the middle of) and NP0 au centre de NP1 (at the center of). Referentialist semantics characterizes these constructions with reference to a geometric interpretation of centre and milieu. This paper challenges the referentialist approach and shows that the distinction between au milieu de and au centre de hinges on two semantic criteria. The first criterion has to do with whether NP1 is bounded or not. The second criterion concerns the functional meaning of NP0 with respect to NP1. These two criteria account for linguistic phenomena that range from the concrete domain (concrete nouns in the singular and in the plural, mass nouns, collective nouns) to the abstract domain (intensifying names and action names).The study of these two preposition phrases is also a good opportunity to propose a renewed approach to localization based on philosophy, and more precisely phenomenology. We develop the following idea : au centre de/au milieu de impose distinct perspectivizing effects and localize radically different elements, even when these elements are apparently synonyms. To substantiate these claims, we use the Gestalt-based opposition between figure and ground. We show that au centre de makes a functional link with a bounded whole (a figure), whereas au milieu de implies a coincidence with a substance whose boundaries are not specified.
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