ABSTRACT
What we might call the thought of language has been for over a century a most important concept for many thinkers working outside the discipline of linguistics. Indeed, the twentieth century has with justice been called the “century of language,” a period during which the concept of language has enjoyed an absolutely singular preeminence not only as an object of fascinated study by specialists, but also as a kind of philosopher’s stone capable of grounding or anchoring other fields far removed from linguistics. Indeed, the thought of language has been more than just another concept, and has almost appeared to be a partially hidden master-concept whose features, if they could be determined, might solve a host of problems within other disciplines, problems unsolvable within the disciplines themselves. The belief in language as a master-concept has had a profound impact on the intellectual history of the past century, and has survived even the remarkable crumbling or erosion of confidence that has afflicted the discipline of linguistics itself over the past generation.
