Benveniste’s main argument in the “Subjectivity of Language” is that language creates the basis of subjectivity. The example of nature and man in this reading helped make her overall view of language clear to me. There were three specific arguments within this central idea that I found interesting.
“The conscious self is only possible if it is experienced by contrast”. In order to use language one must also be aware of opposing subjects or else subjectivity is not present. A person uses the term ‘I’ knowing that there has to be a ‘you’ on the other end. I agree with this argument and I really like it. It reminds me of Lacan’s mirror-stage.
“A language without the expression of a person cannot be imagined”. At first I was skeptical about this concept but overall I agree with it. Subjectivity is only revealed through the use of pronouns. In certain cultures that do not use pronouns, they are still implied and acknowledged since they refrain from using them.
I do not completely agree with her argument that “language always makes a distinction of tenses”. She says that language always uses a tense no matter what it is, but I can’t believe that this could be true in all cases of language. I do feel that the use of ‘I’ with no other tense is a tense itself because it is occurring.
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