Word, language, and thought – a new linguistic model

Abstract

This article proposes a new account of the general architecture of language, based on the word and on the processual unity of Saussurean parole and langue in the dynamical cognitive reality of language. Language is process, usage, text, and a capacity, a competence. A literary example, from Félix Fénéon, is offered. It is argued that words have properties affecting every substructure in language and additionally constitute the threshold between language and thought.