Language and Thought: Cognitive Dualism or Semiotic Duality?

Rastier François
Language of the article : French
DOI: 10.3406/intel.2011.1147
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Reinforced by the separation between the soul and the body between the intelligible and the perceived, the separation between language and thought owes a great deal to the universalism of Western metaphysics.
How can a solution of continuity be found between the "cognitive" universality of Reason and the irreducible (or fundamental) diversity of languages, discourses and genres? This ill-posed problem seems to be at the origin of the main challenges facing cognitive linguistics, since it tends to favour  inadequate models of the sign and equally inadequate preconceptions about language, rooted as they are in the philosophy of language, rather than in comparative linguistics.

By digging deeper into the new found texts of Ferdinand de Saussure, a theory of dualities can be put forward that will overcome traditional philosophical dualism, and restore the praxeological (and not ontological) dimension of fundamental semiotic ou relationships. This will lead to a new vision of natural language and more generally of cultural objects.



Pour citer cet article :

Rastier François (2011/2). Language and Thought: Cognitive Dualism or Semiotic Duality? In Guignard Jean-Baptiste (Eds), Cognitive Linguistics: A Critical Exploration, Intellectica, 56, (pp.29-80), DOI: 10.3406/intel.2011.1147.