The violence of language

Any theory of language constructs its object by separating relevant from irrelevant phenomena and excluding the latter. As a result, all theories of language leave out a remainder. This remainder is the odd, untidy, awkward, creative part of how all of us use language all the time. It is the essence of poetry and of metaphor. Jean-Jacques Lecercle argues that, although the remainder can never be completely formalized, it must be fully recognized by any true account of language. He expounds a theory of the remainder which has to face the hard contradiction: "Who speaks? Language, or the speaker?" This leads to a discussion of the violence of language, and the fact that all speakers are violently constrained in their use of language by quite particular social and psychological realities.