My thesis is a monographic study of the life and work of Emile Benveniste (1902-1976) focusing on the role that the concept of meaning (sens) plays in his thought. The first part takes into account the theoretical foundations of Benveniste’s ideas in connection with the tenets stemming from the Schools of Paris (A. Meillet and M. Bréal), Prague (R. Jakobson and V. Skalička) and Copenhagen (texts around 1939). The second part deals with Benveniste’s concept of “linguistics of discours”. I distinguish two meanings of “meaning” in Benveniste’s works and I point out the resulting confusion. Moreover, I study the possible variants of the relation between sémiotique and sémantique, looking at the ones coming from the Semantic group (J. Lotz, R. Wells) and from V. Skalička as possible sources of inspiration. In the third part, I analyze the notions of time, writing and poetry in connection with G.W.F. Hegel, J. Derrida and structural analysis of narration (R. Barthes, T. Todorov).