A Study Of émile Benveniste's Discourse Linguistics And Contemporary Western Discourse Theory

Emile Benveniste(1902-1976)is a famous linguist,semiologist and philosopher in France.His linguistics with the theory of utterance as the core brought the subject of utterance and speech into the study of language,and he emphasized the subjectivity of speech activity,the subjectivity of interaction and the communicative dialogism,which had open up a new way of language research which different from Saussure's structuralism linguistics,and laid a foundation for the formation and development of discourse linguistics.His linguistics thought transcended and developed Saussure's Structural linguistics.Benveniste's linguistic semiotic thought,which takes the theory of utterance as the core,had a profound influence on the formation and development of contemporary western discourse theory.In the 1960 s,there was a "discourse turn" in literary research.The focus of the research shifted from structural language to discourse activities,from the emphasis on the internal research of literature to the external research of literature again,from the emphasis on the autonomy of literature to the emphasis on the heteronomy of literature.Many scholars in our country,such as Zhou Xian,Wang Zhenglong,Tao Guoshan and so on,have put forward that Benvinist's linguistic thought plays an important role in this discourse turn.They think that his linguistic sign thought with statement theory as the core has profoundly influenced the formation and development of contemporary western discourse theory.This thesis is divided into six parts and four chapters to discuss Benveniste's discourse linguistics and its influence on Contemporary Western discourse theory.This thesis is divided into six parts and four chapters to discuss Benveniste's discourse linguistics and its influence on Contemporary Western discourse theory.The introduction part mainly includes three parts: the proposal of the problem,thereview of domestic and foreign research status,the significance of the research and ideas.The part of "the proposal of the problem" is about the backgrounds of two turns of linguistics on the field of literature theory,analysis of important concepts,and the determination of the research object.Chapter one: Starting with the generation of Benveniste's discourse linguistics,including three aspects: his life and academic path,his main works,analysis of the main sources of his linguistic thoughts,and his inheritance and transcendence of Saussure's structuralism linguistics.The most distinctive feature of Benveniste's linguistic thought is his theory of utterance.He is the initiator of utterance linguistics and the founder of discourse linguistics.This thesis generalizes his linguistic thought as discourse linguistics,aiming to focus on his linguistic symbol idea with utterance theory as the core,and to put it under the background of Western discourse theory.Chapter two: Mainly discussing the main viewpoints of Benveniste's discourse linguistics,and include his linguistic viewpoints on the nature of linguistic symbols,the relationship between semiotics and linguistics,the relationship between language and thought,and the relationship between language and society.This part is divided into two parts.The first part discusses its basic views on the nature of language symbols.The second part discusses the relationship between language symbols and other symbols and the status of language symbols in the symbol system.Chapter three: Focusing on the utterance theory,which is the core part of discourse linguistics,including the utterance and the elements of discourse,the utterance and the function of discourse,the utterance and the types of discourse.The thesis also combines the basic views of Chinese and foreign scholars on the elements of language activities to discuss the unique features of Benveniste's utterance theory.Chapter four: Connecting Benveniste's linguistic thought with the contemporary western discourse theory,and mainly expounding its specific influence on the discourse theory of the important contemporary western literary theorists,in order to see his specific influence on the contemporary western discourse theory,especially inthe field of literary theory.This thesis discusses the influence of Benveniste on the discourse theory of Paul Ricoeur,Roland Barthes,Jean-Claude Coquet and Julia Kristeva.The conclusion part discusses the contribution of Benveniste's discourse linguistics,the influence of Benveniste on the "discourse turn" of contemporary western literary theory and the reference significance of Benveniste to the study of contemporary aesthetics and literature and art in China.