The Universality of Natural Languages. In What Sense Was Latin a Universal Language? Cover Image

Universalitatea limbilor naturale. În ce sens a fost limba Latină o limbă universală?
The Universality of Natural Languages. In What Sense Was Latin a Universal Language?

Author(s): Dumitru Borţun
Subject(s): Language studies, Semantics, Philosophy of Language
Published by: Editura Casa Cărții de Știință
Keywords: universal language; "rigorous" approach; "non-rigurous" approach; intensive universality; extensive universality;

Summary/Abstract: Two research traditions, the so-called "rigorous research" and "non-rigorous research", have emerged in the contemporary philosophy of language. The former research tradition is characterized by its relationship with the science paradigms, being inspired by the style of mathematics, logic or theoretical linguistics. One of the assumptions of this approach is the belief that any language is universal (it is supra-historic, trans-local), because it is based on Sense, and sense is not contextual, it does not relate to empirical contingencies, but to logical statements which are universal . On the other hand, the myth of universal language is one of the oldest founding myths; it has taken various forms throughout history. In the context of globalization, more and more interest is shown to Language of Wilder Communication. The present paper attempts to answer the following question: in what sense was Latin universal, in the "intensive" sense (in the sense that it had a transcultural semantic interpretation), or in the "extensive" sense (it functioned as a lingua franca for situational reasons)?

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 53-61
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Romanian