“«Che cosa vuoi sapere, esattamente?» Il problema linguistico nel Sofista di Platone”
Author(s)
Date Issued
2023
Type
bookPart
Volume
9
Start Page
71
End Page
82
Journal
Abstract
At the beginning of the Sophist, Plato offers an example of common language, which is pathemical and emotional. This allows him to introduce, 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 propositional lógos and its elements (ónoma, rhêma) were the description of the structure of ordinary utterances.