Augustine and Wittgenstein on language: the meaning problem

The influence of Saint Augustine (354-430) on the contemporary philosophy themes is in fact great. Inside these themes, one stands out in the contemporary philosophy: the theme of language. It is no accident that Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), one of the great philosophers of language of XX century, kept a swinging correlation with the Augustine theory. In this sense, with support in the Augustine’s works Confessiones and De magistro, and with support in the Wittgenstein’s Tractacus-Logico Philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1953), this article aims analyze the theoric connection between Augustine and Wittgenstein on the linguistics signals. With this connection, aims presents a scrutiny about the link between linguistic signals and referencials objects, with function of explore the discussion about the referencial words conteudistics topic, an important topic in the language’s metaphysics and for the philosophy of language.