Language versus Proposition? Michel Meyer and the Problematological Conception of Language

Relying on the observation that language – “langage” or logos – has a questioning essence and its existence depends on the “problematological difference”, Michel Meyer proposes the couple “question/answer” as the basic unity of linguistic studies. His analysis of the contrastive blend of these two elements leads to some problematological triangle with hermeneutic/semantic, rhetoric/ argumentative and dialectic/dialogic as sides, and which includes any speech act, i. e. any kind of interaction between question and answer, in both intra- and intersubjective areas. Between this triangle and what Meyer calls the “classic model of syntax/semantics/pragmatics”, there is no side by side opposition, especially since the semantic dimension is common in both models. However, Meyer insists on their division, because he considers the classic model as the very manifestation of “propostionalism” in language sciences. In the problematological conception of language, the critique of linguistic propostionalism and the one of philosophical propositionalism are melded. They join the critique of positivism which, says Meyer, is the radical form of propostionalism.