Edited by Francesc Feliu and Olga Fullana
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 20] 2019
► pp. 23–45
In the matter of language, without talking about multiplicity of languages – let’s leave it for a moment –, there is a tension between unity and multiplicity which still deserves to be analised.
The multiple approaches or facets of that we talk have given rise to the multiple fields of linguistics, the multiple ‘sciences of language’. This term, in plural, has been adopted in France by scientific policies, by a kind of renunciation of the singular language. Of course, the necessary specializations determine institutional territories that are keen to distinguish themselves, but does it imply the impossibility of a one science of language?
These multiple approaches are opposed to the intuition we have of the unity of the phenomenon: what we singularly call the language, both in the academic world and in the profane. Considering all these facets as legitimate, embracing this multiplicity is a permanent challenge for those who try to com-prehend, in the meaning of ‘grasping together’
Article language: French