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This article attempts to rethink the understanding of language as a "set of words" that correspond to the "objects" of external reality, which is characteristic of Western philosophy and lay perception. The following arguments are offered against this approach: the concept of "word" (like the actual division into morphology and syntax) has no metalinguistic status; the classification of parts of speech is languagespecific, so that the prototypical referential function of a "noun" cannot lay claim to the status of a universal linguistic function; and the idea of language as a "set of words" only reflects the specific metapragmatic awareness of speakers of European languages. Through examining the facts of linguistic diversity and linguistic functions in light of grammatical typology, the author shows that the most adequate interpretation of the relationship between language and reality is an understanding that characterizes language as a large-scale device for forcing its users towards a specific depiction of events. The author also emphasizes the fundamental specificity of the grammatical structure and usage models of each concrete linguistic system. In order to promote a philosophical understanding of language, it is necessary to move from a naïve model that operates with "word – reference – object" to a more realistic model involving "language (as a set of morphosyntactic patterns of conceptualization) – correspondence – event (as a complex situation involving meaning)."

This article discusses the attributes of the sociological method of V.N.Voloshinov (M.M.Bakhtin) on the example of the book "Marxism and the Philosophy of Language". Analysis was conducted in the context of the early works of the Soviet philosopher, while taking into consideration their study by Yu. Davydov, S.G. Bocharov's recollections of Bakhtin, as well as the author's previous article on a related topic. It is substantiated that Bakhtin's worldview evolved over time, with him having been influenced in parallel and in sequence by the ideas of the most prominent German philosophers of the first quarter of the 20th century: G.Simmel, G.Cohen, E.Cassirer, E.Husserl, M.Scheler and others. The desire to develop an independent system of views, starting from the phenomenological sociology of Scheler, led Bakhtin in his work "Problems of Dostoevsky's Creativity" to the idea of human consciousness' "dialogism" being a member of society (an individual). In the work "Marxism and the Philosophy of Language", Voloshinov-Bakhtin "materialistically" interprets Cassirer's "philosophy of symbolic forms" and comes to the idea of "inter-individuality" of the ideological code environment (inter-subjectivity) as a fundamental socio-cultural phenomenon that should serve as the basis for understanding both individual consciousness and all forms of human culture.

Marxist anthropology, as a kind of philosophical anthropology and an integral part of Marxist philosophy, seeks to find an answer to the question of its primary concern—what is humanity or human nature? From the Marxist perspective, human beings are distinguished from animals by making and using tools, and the creation of tools is closely related to the birth of language and consciousness. In this context, Marxist anthropology tries to trace the origin of humankind through tracing that of tools, language and consciousness. Consequently, it is endowed with a dimension of the philosophy of language. In his article "The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man", Engels proposed a hypothesis on the origins of humankind and human language, which constructed the framework of Marxist anthropology. This framework was subsequently adopted and developed by Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao, renowned philosophers in contemporary China and Vietnam, in establishing their own philosophical systems. This article, through illuminating and comparing Engels, Li Zehou and Tran Duc Thao's hypotheses on the origins of humankind and human language, aims to shed new light on Marxist anthropology through the lens of the philosophy of language. I believe that this exploration will profoundly inspire the Marxist philosophy of language, an emerging trend in the field of the philosophy of language.