Linguistics and Philosophy — and the production of meaning regarding language(s)

The organizers of this symposium proceed from the premise that there is an underlying philosophy in all reflection on language, especially that which deals with linguistic meaning. After all, making sense of a mass of sounds in verbal expressions (or gestures) has always been a wonder, a thauma: how are these sounds, blown beyond the barrier of the teeth, heard by the other — and can they be understood, misunderstood, or misinterpreted? And then, how can we judge that the other understood what was said? Hence, the linguistic phenomenon, driven by various impulses — the fetish of establishing a true relationship between words and things, the desire to prescribe norms for proper speech and writing, the need to teach reading — has long intrigued and aroused the curiosity of researchers: how do we manage to express and understand the banality and beauty of our most everyday, most intimate acts? For all these reasons, it is no wonder that “[t]he relationship between linguistics and philosophy is primarily centered in the field of semantics” [“[a] relação entre a linguística e a filosofia se trava principalmente no campo da semântica”] (Martins, 1999, p.442). It is in the mystery of the formation of linguistic meaning that philosophers and linguists intersect in a dizzying chiasm. Furthermore, according to Stancati (2018), if in the last century we witnessed a linguistic turn in philosophy (and, in fact, in the humanities), more recently we can speak of a philosophical turn in linguistics. In short, this symposium posits that there is an intrinsic relationship between language and philosophy — or rather, multiple relationships of constitution and formation between them. Thus, we do not believe there is a single Philosophy of Language, but rather “[...] different philosophies of language” [“[...] diferentes filosofias da linguagem”] (Cabrera, 2003, p. 17). By advocating, alongside Cabrera, for the plurality of linguistic and philosophical perspectives, we hope that this symposium will serve as an open forum for debates and contributions from multiple conceptions of language at the intersection of Philosophy and Language Studies. Thus, we hope to foster a space for reflection among researchers in the fields of Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Linguistics, History of Linguistic Ideas, discourse studies, Applied Linguistics, Mass Communication, Social Sciences, and Applied Social Sciences — in short, with those who approach language from interdisciplinary perspectives that celebrate the points of convergence (and divergence) between Linguistics and Philosophy.

Bibliography:
Auroux, S. (1998) A filosofia da linguagem. Trad.: José Horta Nunes. Campinas, Editora da Unicamp.
Cabrera, J. (2003) Margens das filosofias da linguagem: conflitos e aproximações entre analíticas, hermenêuticas, fenomenologia e metacríticas da linguagem. Brasília, Universidade de Brasília.
Foucault, M. (2023) Le Discours philosophique. Paris, Seuil.
Martins, H. (1999) Três caminhos na filosofia da linguagem. In: Mussalim, F. & Bentes, A. C. (Orgs.). Introdução à linguística: fundamentos epistemológicos. Vol. 3, p. 441-473. São Paulo, Cortez.
Stancati, C. (2018) Quelle philosophie pour les sciences du langage? Cahiers de l’ILSL, n°53, p. 105-130.

Coordenação: Ana Paula Grillo El-Jaick (UFJF); Gleiton Matheus Bonfante (UFF); Pedro Fraga dos Santos (UERJ)