»Languages are unstable and disordered systems«

Observations of a Linguist on Karl Bühler’s Theory of Language

Abstract

The paper proposes a reading of Bühler’s Sprachtheorie from a linguistic point of view. Attention is paid to some yet actual and not fully exploited topics: a) the critic of the segmental phonological model; b) the physiognomical model, the Gestalt point of view in the representation of the sound shape of language and a new view on pertinence; c) the theory of two fields and the cooperation between the symbolic field and the deictic one; d) the critic of the principle of the »poverty of the stimulus«; e) the role of the listener; f) the notion of »language game«.