The Interrelation between Linguistics and Philosophy in Sincronía, diacronía e historia by Eugenio Coseriu

Abstract

Eugenio Coseriu’s scientific work revolves around two main “obsessions”: defending the indissolubility

of the linguistic and philosophical dimensions of theorization on language; and

the insistence on establishing systematic differentiations. With regard to both fixations, this

work shows the extent to which Sincronía, diacronía e historia is much more than a simple

treatise about the problem of linguistic change; it must rather be described as the key work

when it comes to unraveling the principles that underpin the philosophical-scientific edifice

of Coserian linguistic theory. For this purpose, our analysis has focused on the degree to

which Coseriu’s interest in differentiation finds its roots in philosophy, additionally examining

what aspects of Coseriu’s linguistic thinking, what argumentation procedures and what

essential categorizations and concepts of his linguistic theorization originate in issues of a

philosophical nature mainly associated not with philosophy of language, but with philosophy

of Linguistics.