SOURCE: “The Problem of Language in Husserl,” in Telos: A Quarterly Journal of Critical Thought, No. 6, Fall, 1970, pp. 184-203.

In the following essay, Bonomi explores the influence of Husserl's phenomenological principles and methods on the theory and practice of the grammatical analysis of language.

The aim of this essay is to indicate the basic orientation of Husserl's account of language. First of all, the problem is to distinguish the concept of expression from other semiological concepts such as, e.g., signs. This will allow us to characterize the expression in a positive way which turns out to be founded on unities of an abstract type, i.e. on classes of variants. It follows that the general meaning of Husserl's attempts lies in the proposal for a formal analysis of language concerning langue and parole. This orientation can be best seen in the project of a “pure grammar” considered...