Verbal, linguistique et langagier. Enunciazione e antropologia del gesto mentale.

The paper aims to explain the metalinguistic value of three distinct but related concepts of the Theory of Predicative and Enunciative Operations (henceforth, TOPE). This research program, conceived by the french linguist Antoine Culioli, introduced a fundamental theoretical distinction between the concepts of “verbal” “linguistique” et “langagier”. The first concept refer to the complementary processes of phonation and audition that characterize every interlocutory exchange. The second one refer to the rules that characterize the formal system of a specific natural language. The third and last concept refer to the language operations viewed as processes of construction of meaning. With particular reference to this last aspect of the human language activity, we will examine a new operative concept introduced by TOPE: the «mental gesture». In order to describe it, we will seek to establish some analogies with the concept of «mimème» introduced by the french anthropologist Marcel Jousse.