1990
First Published
4.12
Average Rating
282
Number of Pages
Any theory of language constructs its object by separating relevant from irrelevant phenomena and excluding the latter. As a result, all theories of language leave out a remainder. This remainder is the odd, untidy, awkward, creative part of how all of us use language all the time. It is the essence of poetry and of metaphor. Jean-Jacques Lecercle argues that, although the remainder can never be completely formalized, it must be fully recognized by any true account of language. He expounds a theory of the remainder which has to face the hard contradiction: "Who speaks? Language, or the speaker?" This leads to a discussion of the violence of language, and the fact that all speakers are violently constrained in their use of language by quite particular social and psychological realities.
Avg Rating
4.12
Number of Ratings
34
5 STARS
38%
4 STARS
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3 STARS
21%
2 STARS
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1 STARS
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Author
Jean-Jacques Lecercle
Author · 5 books
Jean-Jacques Lecercle is Professor of English at the University of Paris at Nanterre. He has published widely in the fields of philosophy of language and literary theory, and is the author of The Violence of Language, Philosophy of Nonsense, Interpretations of Pragmatics and Deleuze and Language.
