Literature of the Americas Literature of the Americas 2541-7894 2542-243X IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-7894-2025-19-136-165 Research Article Articles Jorge Luis Borges’ “Philosophy” of Language 2025 Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article analyzes Jorge Luis Borges’ views on language. In his essays and poems, he often uses both philosophy and language as material. In this regard, the question arises: has Borges developed, to some extent or another, systematic and consistent views on language as such? The analysis is carried out on three aspects: Borges’s attitude to poetic language, to allegory and to translation. The material is Borges’s essays, prefaces, lectures and interviews. The evolution of Borges’ views is traced. At the early stage (1920–1940s), Borges is mostly interested in specific issues: the formulation of a normative ultraist poetics, the defense of the Argentine version of the Spanish language, as well as the problems of understanding grammar and applied stylistics. In other words, at this stage, two trends dominate: stylistic and sociolinguistic. At the second stage (1950–1980s), Borges changes his position regarding the use of Argentinisms and turns to more general problems, primarily the problem of poetic language. The origin of language is irrational. First, the language of poetry appears, then prose, each tradition has its own pace of development. Poetic language is associated with tradition, with a magical beginning and is an inconvenient tool due to its variability. The poet strives to return to ancient magic, selecting suitable means of language, acting as a “constructor”, adjusting the proportion of the concrete and the abstract. Borges interprets the concept of “translation” broadly: the translator is not required to know the source language, the concept of a finished text is untenable, we have before us a series of drafts that can and should be rewritten in the language of the translator, for whom it is most important to convey conceptual information, to reassemble the text by means of his language. However, the translator can also correct the text. Every writer is also a translator. Within the literary process, there is a movement from allegories to novels: from the abstract, associated with medieval realism, to the concrete (nominalism). However, in novels there remains an allegorical element when it comes to generalizations, identifying “types” of heroes. 1. Aguilar 2020 — Aguilar, Gonzalo. “La disolución del arte (Sobre ‘Crónicas de Bustos Domecq’)”. Variaciones Borges, no. 49 (2020): 33–48. 2. Almeida 1998 — Almeida, Ivan. “‘Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi’ y la teología literaria de Borges”. 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