Language, Subject, Enunciation, Discourse: (Re)Reading Michel Pêcheux in Times of Generative Language Tools
ABSTRACT This article aims to reflect on the functioning of generative language tools, based on the theoretical-methodological framework of materialist discourse analysis, founded on the propositions of Michel Pêcheux. Taking as a starting point the (re)reading of Pêcheux’s work, focusing on the notions of language, subject, enunciation and discourse, it proposes questions about the way in which the processes of production of meanings, theoretically understood as phenomena carried out by/in subjects, are affected by the advancement of chatbots, in their capacity for textual production. In a second moment, based on the analysis of linguistic materiality produced by ChatGPT, it points to the way in which the machine, inscribed in the place of “artificial intelligence,” begins to “inherit” discursive positions arising from texts present in its training, so that the meanings produced in their formulations are anchored in a mapping of dispute processes over meanings that instantiate these positions.