The Theory of Argumentation within Language and its relation to Plato, Saussure and Benveniste

Abstract

The Theory of Argumentation within Language, developed by Oswald Ducrot, Jean-Claude Anscombre and Marion Carel, has experienced along its development different phases and forms, constantly seeking to align to what its main developer, Oswald Ducrot, called external hypotheses and internal hypotheses. This paper discusses the presence of Linguistic Theories and Philosophy in Ducrot’s work regarding concepts of Plato, Ferdinand de Saussure and Émile Benveniste, which constitute its external assumptions. The presence of these concepts culminated in the creation of different concepts that comprise the Linguistic Semantics, and gave it a specific point of view about language that emphasizes the internal relationships among language components and understands that speech is the result of a linguistic activity where an “I” speaks to a “you”.