Editors’ introduction: on the question of language

The linguistic turn that began in the early twentieth century, defining the interests of both analytic and continental philosophy, has shown no signs of abating. Indeed, it has only intensified in the continental tradition, accelerated by remarks such as Heidegger’s “Language is the House of Being”1 and Gadamer’s claim that “Being that can be understood is language.”2 By the time Derrida writes Of Grammatology and says “il n’y a pas de hors-texte” (1967) it seemed as if that turn could go no further and that language was now inscribed as the premier philosophical concern.