The article focuses on the scientific heritage of Alexander Potebnyа, the central figure in the history of Russian linguistic and philosophical tradition, and Sergey Bulgakov's doctrine of word and language, presented in the work «Philosophy of Name». The comparative analysis reveals the following: a) the key elements of S. Bulgakov's doctrine historically genetically rooted in A. A. Potebnya's linguistic research; b) the basic difference between the philosophical bases of two concepts (gnoseological and ontological paradigms of language study); c) characteristic correspondence of basic views on the structure of word and the functioning of language.