A concepção de sentido na linguística textual de Eugenio Coseriu: confluências e contraposições às teorias de John Searle e Jacques Derrida

Abstract

The works of Romanian linguist Eugenio Coseriu constitute a significant theoretical contribution to the concept of meaning in language theory, as according to this author, text linguistics is a hermeneutics of meaning, a discipline related to the individual linguistic level and whose central task is to prove and justify the meaning of texts. In two other theoretical traditions, such as in the studies of John Searle ー one of the proponents of speech act theory, and in the tenets of Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, it is possible to observe that the process of meaning construction also constitutes the core of philosophical and linguistic concerns. In this context, this dissertation compares the conception of meaning according to Coseriu with the works of Searle and Derrida, justifying the choice as we understand that there are significant divergences among their contributions, particularly regarding the role of interlocutors and the conditions of production for the recognition of meaning. Assuming an approach essentially theoretical, this research is characterized methodologically as a bibliographic, explanatory study of a basic nature (GIL, 2017; SEVERINO, 2017). Its main objective is to describe and comparatively analyze the conception of meaning in Coserian textual linguistics (COSERIU, 1987; 2007), speech act theory (SEARLE, 1984; 1995), and deconstruction (DERRIDA, 2006; 2009). To this end, we aim to: a) identify the conception of meaning present in the aforementioned studies; b) compare the understanding of meaning for each of the mentioned authors; and, finally, c) develop a synthesis to define meaning based on the similarities and differences found in each of the approaches under scrutiny. Based on the observed specificities, we note the approximation between Coserian textual linguistics and Searle’s theory of speech acts, particularly regarding the pragmatic aspects involved in the construction and recognition of meaning. This differs from the Derridean perspective, in which the author’s intention is disregarded, and meaning is seen as something continually deferred due to writing being, for Derrida, a play of signifiers. These findings contribute, therefore, to the systematization of the records of a comparative analysis about the conception of meaning according to the three theories mentioned, to the dissemination of Eugenio Coseriu's text linguistics as a hermeneutics of meaning and show that the theoretical scope around meaning makes this theme a source of multiple and necessary investigations, whether within the scope of text linguistics or philosophy of language.