Key Arguments

• Once 'man uses language to establish a living relation with himself or with his contemporaries, language is no longer an instrument, no longer a means. Rather, it is a manifestation, a revelation of inner being and of the psychical link that unites us to the world and to our fellows.' This opposes utilitarian or instrumental conceptions of speech.
• Although Schneider’s language 'reveals much knowledge, and as much as it is useful for determinate activities, it is nevertheless completely lacking this productivity that makes up the most profound essence of man,' indicating that the essential function of language is creative, not merely informative or practical.
• Merleau-Ponty reuses Saussurean terminology: 'languages [langages] ... are the depository and the sedimentation of acts of speech [parole], in which the unformulated sense not only finds the means of expressing itself on the outside, but moreover acquires existence for itself, and is truly created as sense,' defining acts of speech as the original locus of sense-creation.
• He introduces the distinction 'between a speaking speech and a spoken speech': speaking speech is where 'the meaningful intention is in a nascent state' and existence 'creates speech as the empirical support of its own non-being', whereas spoken speech 'enjoys the use of available significations like that of an acquired fortune.'
• The 'act of expression constitutes a linguistic and cultural world, it makes that which stretched beyond fall back into being,' showing how expressive transcendence becomes immanent as a stable world of meanings.
• He notes that from these acquisitions 'other authentic acts of expression – those of the writer, the artist, and the philosopher – become possible,' indicating that culture and language function as a reservoir enabling further expression, not as a fixed code that simply transmits pre‑formed thoughts.

Source Quotes

By contrast, we catch sight of the essence of normal language: the intention to speak can only be found in an open experience: it appears, as boiling appears in a liquid, when, in the thickness of being, empty zones are constituted and move outward. From the moment man uses language to establish a living relation with himself or with his contemporaries, language is no longer an instrument, no longer a means. Rather, it is a manifestation, a revelation of inner being and of the psychical link that unites us to the world and to our fellows. As much as the patient’s language reveals much knowledge, and as much as it is useful for determinate activities, it is nevertheless completely lacking this productivity that makes up the most profound essence of man and that is perhaps revealed in no creation of civilization with as much clarity as it is revealed in the creation of language itself.44 By taking up a famous distinction, it might be said that languages [langages], that is, constituted systems of vocabulary and syntax, or the various empirically existing “means of expression,” are the depository and the sedimentation of acts of speech [parole], in which the unformulated sense not only finds the means of expressing itself on the outside, but moreover acquires existence for itself, and is truly created as sense.

Rather, it is a manifestation, a revelation of inner being and of the psychical link that unites us to the world and to our fellows. As much as the patient’s language reveals much knowledge, and as much as it is useful for determinate activities, it is nevertheless completely lacking this productivity that makes up the most profound essence of man and that is perhaps revealed in no creation of civilization with as much clarity as it is revealed in the creation of language itself.44 By taking up a famous distinction, it might be said that languages [langages], that is, constituted systems of vocabulary and syntax, or the various empirically existing “means of expression,” are the depository and the sedimentation of acts of speech [parole], in which the unformulated sense not only finds the means of expressing itself on the outside, but moreover acquires existence for itself, and is truly created as sense. Or again, the distinction could be made between a speaking speech and a spoken speech.45 In the former, the meaningful intention is in a nascent state.

As much as the patient’s language reveals much knowledge, and as much as it is useful for determinate activities, it is nevertheless completely lacking this productivity that makes up the most profound essence of man and that is perhaps revealed in no creation of civilization with as much clarity as it is revealed in the creation of language itself.44 By taking up a famous distinction, it might be said that languages [langages], that is, constituted systems of vocabulary and syntax, or the various empirically existing “means of expression,” are the depository and the sedimentation of acts of speech [parole], in which the unformulated sense not only finds the means of expressing itself on the outside, but moreover acquires existence for itself, and is truly created as sense. Or again, the distinction could be made between a speaking speech and a spoken speech.45 In the former, the meaningful intention is in a nascent state. Here existence is polarized into a certain “sense” that cannot be defined by any natural object; existence seeks to meet up with itself beyond being, and this is why it creates speech as the empirical support of its own non-being.

But the act of expression constitutes a linguistic and cultural world, it makes that which stretched beyond fall back into being. This results in spoken speech, which enjoys the use of available significations like that of an acquired fortune. From these acquisitions, other authentic acts of expression – those of the writer, the artist, and the philosopher – become possible.

Key Concepts

• From the moment man uses language to establish a living relation with himself or with his contemporaries, language is no longer an instrument, no longer a means. Rather, it is a manifestation, a revelation of inner being and of the psychical link that unites us to the world and to our fellows.
• it is nevertheless completely lacking this productivity that makes up the most profound essence of man and that is perhaps revealed in no creation of civilization with as much clarity as it is revealed in the creation of language itself.
• languages [langages], that is, constituted systems of vocabulary and syntax, or the various empirically existing “means of expression,” are the depository and the sedimentation of acts of speech [parole], in which the unformulated sense not only finds the means of expressing itself on the outside, but moreover acquires existence for itself, and is truly created as sense.
• Or again, the distinction could be made between a speaking speech and a spoken speech.
• This results in spoken speech, which enjoys the use of available significations like that of an acquired fortune.

Context

Middle of the passage, where Merleau-Ponty generalizes from the Schneider case to a phenomenological theory of language as manifestation, and introduces the key distinctions langue/parole and 'speaking speech' vs. 'spoken speech'.