This paper aims to explore and develop the claim that the basic meaning of a lexical item is consituted by the topoi that this item allows applying when uttered. The discussion of another basic hypothesis, regarding the standard form of topoi, distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic topoi and relates them to the use of MAIS and POURTANT and to the use of proverbs. Furthermore several phenomena of topicalization, scale predication and aspect/time structuration are accounted for in terms of topoi.