Sign in or 
Location: II: Benveniste/Levi-Strauss
Discussion: Benveniste
Category:
Discussion Forum /
General Discussion
Share this
Showing 1 post
giannag |
Benveniste
Feb 8 2007, 7:23 PM EST
I very much enjoyed Benveniste’s essay on the subjectivity of language. I also agreed with much of what she said—how “I” and “you” are, in a way, the basis of language. Before two people came together and tried to communicate (as Professor Rooney said in class), there was nothing to compare anything to; without the fundamental difference between “I” and “you”, there could not be the “positive differences” that typifies language. Benveniste explains how language is subjective and how “I” and “you” are the reason for that subjectivity. “Language is possible only because each speaker sets himself up as the a subject by referring to himself as I in his discourse” (p. 225). In class, we discussed a bit how other mediums and patterns (i.e. fashion, film, advertising, etc.) are also languages—not just figuratively, but literally. I think these languages, too, must be subjective, since they are a way for on person to communicate to another person or a larger group of people. When thinking about this, I find it confusing to think about some of Benveniste’s ideas, mostly her thoughts on the opposition between “you” and “I” and how it exclusively applies to language (I assume here, perhaps incorrectly, that she does not mean “language” in the same way we discussed in class, but she means as a spoken communicative device). “It is this polarity [between ‘I’ and ‘you’], moreover, very peculiar in itself, as it offers a type of opposition whose equivalent is encountered nowhere else outside of language” (p. 225). I think that this type of opposition and subjectivity is necessary to have any sort of language at all, but I wonder if the opposition between “I” and “you” appears in other languages—what would be the “I” of, say, film? What would be the ultimate opposition and subjectivity of fashion or any other language? Is there an equivalent, or is Benveniste right in saying that the opposition between “I” and “you” does not appear outside of spoken language?
Do you find this valuable?
|
Be the first to reply.
