LANGUAGE LEVELS: EUGENIO COSERIU’S LINGUISTIC THEORY

ABSTRACT From his very early writings on general linguistics onwards, the Romanian linguist Eugenio Coseriu, like own contemporary Noam Chomsky and Ferdinand de Saussure before them, delineated concept of linguistic knowledge . His pursuit this led him to elaborate famous distinctions levels language , which came be one most important contributions theory. In addition detailing such distinctions, article discusses author’s view nature, content structure knowledge. It also presents some external internal circumstances theory that could explain widespread ignorance Coseriu’s ideas in realm linguistics, especially English-speaking world, recent claims original have given a different direction if half century ago work had received proper attention. Finally, paper addresses question whether Coseriu is neglected genius twentieth as it frequently argued by former students devotees.