Aristotle on the Differences in Material Organisation between Spoken and Written Language: An Inquiry into Part-Whole Relations

• Quarantotto, D. ^[1]
  1. [1] Università de Roma La Sapienza

     Università de Roma La Sapienza

     Roma Capitale, Italia

     
• Localización: Elenchos: Rivista di studi sul pensiero antico, ISSN 0392-7342, Vol. 40, Nº. 2, 2019, págs. 333-362
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In this paper I aim at showing that, in Aristotle's view, spoken and written language differ in their material organisation, in particular in their respective part-whole relations. I argue that, according to Aristotle, written language is an additive system (i.e. a system whose parts exist and are produced prior to what they are parts of), whereas spoken language is a non-additive system (i.e. a system whose parts cannot exist and be produced prior to what they are parts of), and that, in his view, spoken language, qua non-additive system, is analogous to organisms. Further, I outline two possible implications of this hypothesis. The first concerns the relevance of Aristotle's conception of spoken language as a non-additive system to his account of human language's power to signify. I set out some reasons for thinking that Aristotle endorses the view that the form of human language (i.e. its power to signify) is matter-involving. The second implication concerns the syllable analogy that Aristotle employs in Metaphysics ? 17. I argue that the syllable Aristotle refers to is a spoken one, and I develop some consequences of this hypothesis for the meaning of the analogy and, more generally, of the chapter.