GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES AND REALITY

Abstract

This article offers a critical reflection on the relationship between grammatical categories and reality, challenging the traditional notion that language directly and faithfully reflects the external world. Drawing on a theoretical analysis that integrates classical philosophy—particularly Aristotle—modern linguistics, and semiotics, the author examines how word classes function as social and ideological constructs that mediate the ways speakers perceive, conceptualize, and organize reality. The study revisits the reflection theory defended by approaches such as Marxist linguistics, especially in Gorsky’s work, and contrasts it with contemporary perspectives that argue that meaning is not inherent in things themselves but is instead the result of shared cultural and cognitive processes. The article also analyzes traditional classifications of grammatical categories in Spanish, highlighting their historical stability despite persistent ambiguities and controversies regarding categorical boundaries. It is argued that this stability responds not only to linguistic criteria but also to a Western mode of conceptualizing reality inherited from Aristotelian thought. In its conclusions, the study maintains that words do not reflect reality but rather operate as conventional representations of fragments of it, enabling the construction of systems of knowledge, worldviews, and scientific theories. Finally, the article emphasizes that language possesses sufficient internal mechanisms to adapt to new cognitive and cultural demands without substantially altering its fundamental categories.