Constitutive Theory of Language

Constitutive theory of language is an interpretive theory, grounded in hermeneutics, that postulates that language, a fundamental instrument of knowledge, and only language, makes the revelation of the human world possible. The hermeneutic tradition positions meaning at the center of human understanding and cognition. Human beings are language animals; they articulate their existence through language. At the same time, it is through this articulation that humans can change their norms and purpose. Thus, language allows new purposes and new meanings, and without language, the world as we know it and our understanding of it would not exist. The importance of language and meaning has always been at the center of public relations scholarship (Heath, Toth, & Waymer, 2009). Constitutive theory of language can provide a solid point of departure for studying socially constructed meanings and interactions among various groups of stakeholders.

Constitutive theory is the antitype of framing theory, which paints a picture of language within the framework of human life. In contrast, constitutive theory makes it possible to have new understanding and new behaviors as purposes and mental functions cannot be defined, understood, or evaluated without reference to language. Constitutive theory provides a full range of expressive, or symbolic, forms, in which a symbol is a constitutive expression. The constitutive approach postulates that the world does not simply affect human beings by providing a certain state of affairs, to which humans should react, or by creating a chemical condition, through which we produce joy or sadness, for instance. The meanings of sadness or joy only exist as the world imposes on the human mind. Thus the meaning is endogenous. So understanding and communication are only possible because speaking develops an interpretive position in which the nature of things is revealed, not because words are used as referents.

Charles Taylor, a famous Canadian philosopher and a recipient of the prestigious Kyoto Prize and Templeton Prize, brought constitutive theory to light after studying the works of Johann Gottfried von Herder. Herder, a German philosopher and literary critic of the Enlightenment, critiqued the Hobbes-Locke-Condillac form of theory that tried to understand language within the representational epistemology of Descartes. Taylor argued that Herder distinguished between prelinguistic and linguistic beings: the first ones react to the surrounding world and the things around them, whereas the second ones are able “to grasp something as what it is” (Taylor, 2006, p. 18). A notable feature of the language, according to Taylor, is that it involves sensitivity to “intrinsic rightness” in evaluating the connection between the sign and the object, beyond simple aligning (Taylor, 2006, p. 21). This sensitivity refers to issues of the right use of signs. Such sensitivity allows humans to operate in another, semantic dimension, different from the one of animals. Semantic dimension makes humans, or agents, capable of new kinds of relations and new emotions, unique to those possessing the ability to use language. Herder postulated that without language no semantic dimension is possible, and Taylor argued that “to move from non-linguistic to linguistic agency is to move to a world in which a new kind of issue is at play, a right use of signs which is not reducible to task rightness” (p. 22). Thus, the world of agents has a different dimension on which to respond. According to Taylor, behavior can no longer be understood just as the purposive or cognitive seeking of ends.

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