Marxism and the Philosophy of Language in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s

Karl Marx and the language sciences – critical encounters: introduction to the special issue

“…Furthermore, ideas about language ultimately connect up with ideas about everything else. Identifying, following and unpicking the diverse philosophical and ideological threads woven into particular linguistic conceptions therefore involves lengthy and difficult, though necessary, work and often takes us on very surprising journeys of discovery in the work of particular authors or traditions (Nehlich, 1992;Brandist, 2003Brandist, , 2004Brandist, , 2005Brandist, , 2015Brandist, , 2017.…”

“…Opinion is divided on the scope, value, significance and implications of the explicit treatment of language in the writings of Marx and Engels. There are those, including Voloshinov (1973) for whom 'what we can learn about language and linguistics from Marx and Engels is not very much' (Lepschy, 1985: 204;and cf Alpatov, 2000) while many others have found more, sometimes much more, to go on, sometimes to the extent of extrapolating the basic principles for a Marxist approach to language or even a 'Marxist linguistics' (Lepschy, 1985;Alpatov, 2000;Brandist, 2005Brandist, , 2015Samuelian, 1981;Helsloot, 2010). An early attempt to extend a generally Marxist eye to historical semantics was published in 1984 by 'the first Marxist linguist' (Samuelian, 1981: 87), Marx's son-in-law, Paul Lafargue (Lafargue, 1975;Jones, 2001).…”