Head of level : question about the Apply function

Question

I am not sure to really understand how the function Apply works at level 2 for example.

I have read this question and few others and it doesn't help me :Levels: how do they work?

Take the following example :

liste5 = Array[m, {2, 2, 2}]

{{{m[1, 1, 1], m[1, 1, 2]}, {m[1, 2, 1], m[1, 2, 2]}}, {{m[2, 1, 1], 
   m[2, 1, 2]}, {m[2, 2, 1], m[2, 2, 2]}}}

liste5 // TreeForm

Here is the Tree that shows up in mathematica. I added the numbers of the level on the left.

I want to apply a function at level 2 :

Apply[fonction, liste5, {2}]

{{fonction[m[1, 1, 1], m[1, 1, 2]], fonction[m[1, 2, 1], m[1, 2, 2]]}, {fonction[m[2, 1, 1], m[2, 1, 2]], fonction[m[2, 2, 1], m[2, 2, 2]]}}

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What I don't understand :

From what I understood, apply goes at level 2 of the tree, and replace the Head there by the function "fonction". So in practice in this example I would have 4 trees where I replace their heads by "fonction" and I return the whole in a list.

Thus, the result should be :

{fonction @@ liste5[[1, 1]], fonction @@ liste5[[1, 2]], 
 fonction @@ liste5[[2, 1]], fonction @@ liste5[[2, 2]]}

{fonction[m[1, 1, 1], m[1, 1, 2]], fonction[m[1, 2, 1], m[1, 2, 2]], 
 fonction[m[2, 1, 1], m[2, 1, 2]], fonction[m[2, 2, 1], m[2, 2, 2]]}

However, it is not the case.

Said differently, why do I have a 2 dimensional list as a result and not a 1 dimensional one ? Why are the two first branch of level 2 "regrouped" together in a way ?

Answer 1

Apply respects the tree structure and just replaces the heads. A view at the TreeForm of the expressions reveals quite quickly what happens:

liste5 // TreeForm

Apply[fonction, liste5, {2}] // TreeForm