Abstract
In order to better understand Abelard's hostility to nominalism ( vocaliste ) (Roscelin) as well as to several extreme forms of realism (G. de Champeaux), we have clarified his theory of dictum [11], or " quasi-res propositionis " (neither a thing, nor an intellection, without being anything at all), then the concept of status (neither " une chose ", nor a " essence "), which does not prevent them from both being at the foundation of truth and reality, as they are what cause the imposition of our universals. The originality and fruitfulness of such an approach, which is more " non-realist " than nominalistic [12], makes it possible to envisage a semiotics that is authentically " realist ". The principles of Grammatica Speculativa were then detailed. For the modalists (John and Boethius of Dacia, Thomas of Erfurt, Duns Scotus), grammar must provide the universality required by all science (Aristotle) and absent from particular languages. If modes of signification (modi significandi), which determine the rules of constructibility of parts of speech, grammaticality (or rection) and sentence completeness [13], manifest themselves at the level of language, their roots extend into psychology and ontology. There is a homology between modes of being(modi essendi), modes of knowing (modi intelligendi) and modes of signifying(modi significandi), which gives coherence to the system. Moreover, words signify things, even if ideas mediate between them. So, while having its own consistency, language, beyond particular languages, is universal in its intimate connection with thought and being. This is an interesting hierarchy, which allows us to speak of a " propositional realism " [14] : the mode of signifying parts of speech depends on the mode of being of things and their mode of intellection.
