Augustine and Language, Essay Example

Augustine of Hippo was one of the first thinkers to confer an importance to the phenomenon of language as a philosophical line of inquiry. In Concerning the Teacher, Augustine offers his own radically unique account of language, in which language may be summarized as functioning according to what is referred to in the academic literature as a representationalist account. That is to say, Augustine attempts to develop language as a phenomenon that represents the world, allowing for both communication in the world and an understanding of the world. This account of the purpose, function and constitution of language also has profound implications for Augustine’s theology, as his interpretation of language compliments his own thoughts on the terms of the proper human relation to God.

When Augustine advances the representational image of language in the dialogue of Concerning the Teacher, he is primarily interested in assigning language a pragmatic or utilitarian function. Language in itself is not isolated in this account – rather language is a means to an end. We can gather that this is the case according to Augustine’s emphasis on the didactic nature of language. Thus, Augustine questions his interlocutor Adeodatus: “Then doesn’t it seem to you that speaking is undertaken only for the sake of teaching or reminding?” Here, Augustine posits a key interconnection between memory and teaching, to the extent that teaching is essentially the learned remembering of things. This fits with the representationalist accounts of language, as Augustine posits memory within language as a remembering of the representations that language offers. In this view, language can be defined as the means for representation. This idea is explicit in Augustine’s definition of the word as that which helps recall a thing before the mind: “Since by repeating the words our memory, in which the words inhere, makes the very things of which the words are signs come to mind.”

This representationalist account of language anticipates the importance that Augustine will give in the dialogue to the notion of signs. The sign is precisely that which represents or signifies. This signifying function is what may be termed the essence of the sign, as Augustine makes clear in the rhetorical question: “can a sign be a sign if it doesn’t signify anything?” Furthermore, as Augustine overtly notes: “words are signs.” Yet what is crucial to note is that the signs of language are largely mental signs. Augustine makes this distinction by differentiating linguistic signs from signs that function according to ostensive definition, that is, by merely pointing, such as Augustine’s example of the wall. In essence, the linguistic sign transcends the physicality of ostensive definition, and is a mental means of signification, one that is intrinsically linked to thought itself: this is what Augustine means by the mental nature of language. Accordingly, the didactic or learning significance of signs is not merely reducible to ostensive pointing and definition, but also includes the mental aspects of learning, which are refined through the particular signs native to language. From the dialogue, we can therefore understand that language, insofar as it relies on mental signs, is largely representationalist and language is a tool or means towards such representation, which is necessary to the possibility of learning itself.

Augustine’s account of language further develops his theology. It is because of the largely mental nature of language and the latter’s relation to thought that one develops a relation to God through language. As Augustine notes, “God is to be sought and entreated in the hidden parts of the rational soul, which is called the ‘inner man’.” It is precisely the inner man that is cultivated through language, as language is defined according to the signifying and representationalist operation inherent to the mind. Hence, the importance Augustine gives to language as mental process corresponds to the notion that a relation to God must be developed through the use of reason. As such, the perfection of language, memory and learning are crucial to establishing a relationship with God.