The thought-language relationship for Benveniste and the primacy of the linguistic perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to present an interpretation of Émile Benveniste's seminal article ‘Categories of Thought and Language’. In order to do so, a rigorous intratextual analysis is carried out. At the time of its publication, the article was significantly meaningful and attracted severe criticism in the philosophical milieu due to Benveniste’s analysis of the Aristotelian categories. With that in mind, at first (Introduction) we contextualize some aspects of the text’s reception and present some philosophical arguments that illustrate the criticism Benveniste received due to his article. Then, in the first section, we set forth a detailed reading of the article, explaining not only the arguments the linguist presents, but also the way in which they are presented throughout the text. Finally, in the second section, we support the hypothesis that Benveniste assumes the linguistic point of view to propose his reflection, emphasizing the role language plays in the thought-language relationship. Thus, we demonstrate that it is not possible to evaluate the linguist’s reflection within the scope of Aristotelian metaphysics.