Language and tradition in Hans-Georg Gadamer

According to Gadamer, language occupies a primary place that constitutes the ontological basis of the universe contrary to the instrumental approach of the modern era. However, the fact that humans unavoidably live in an inescapably historicity means that they always exist in a tradition. Both considered as the ground of the ontological universe, language and tradition has a reciprocal relationship that language always exists in a tradition and tradition subsists in a linguistic medium. A stable linguistic tradition assures the survival of the language and that it enables communication. Similarly, tradition essentially describes authority, in otherwords, stability. On the other hand, in Gadamerian thought language is simply not an instrument that ensures communication between people but also a living phenomeon that constantly changes. Although tradition indicates a stable authority, it is also open to reinterpretation of the people who transmitted it. Thus, the relationship between the language and the tradition happens in a dialectic of stability and change. Keywords: Philosophy of language, language, tradition, ontology, hermeneutics,semantics, semiotics.