Benveniste: enunciação e referência

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how concerned Benveniste was with the theme of ‘reference’ or the relationship between language and reality. The reintroduction of this theme into Linguistics breaks new ground by showing how the study of language can be combined with an interest in broader problems of social analysis. Benveniste provides a concise and critical review of the problem of ‘meaning’ in Linguistics. In spite of being accused of a lack of historical postulates, Benveniste’s contributions are of paramount mportance for discourse analysis, especially in the French tradition.