The Negative Semiotics of the Voice

Both the philosophical and linguistic tradition tends to disregard the physical quality of language (Stimmlichkeit). In this essay, the author outlines an attempt to rehabilitate the latter by introducing its materiality (its bodily nature, its processual and character) its intersubjectivity, affectivity and its authority into the analysis, as these can be subsumed neither to the logocentrism, nor the implied scripturalism of the intellectualist concept of language. The author argues that the principle of “rule/application” needs to be extended to include the productive and subversive medium. The goal is to move beyond (following Mersch and Barthes) the concept of speech as the use of linguistic signs: the physical quality of speech disrupts the pure discoursivity of language. Current theoretical terminology is not equipped, however, to describe this process, thus, it can only be interpreted as “negative semiotics”.