Il linguaggio: storia delle idee e questioni contemporanee.
Author(s)
Date Issued
2023
Type
bookPart
Start Page
71
End Page
82
Abstract
At the beginning of the Sophist, Plato offers an example of com- mon language, which is pathemical and emotional. This allows him to in- troduce, by contrast, the ‘definite’ lógos, i.e. denotative and propositional language, which is reserved for the needs of science. The contrast between the two languages is all but ignored by the history of linguistic ideas, which is inclined to superimpose them, attributing to Plato the idea that the prop- ositional lógos and its elements (ónoma, rhêma) were the description of the structure of ordinary utterances.