"I have my own troubles with both Kenneally and Badiou. The search for some underlying structure in language seems to me something of a mistake, because much of the work depends on deriving a sense of structure from within language. My suspicion is that the structure isn't `in' language per se, but comes from without, and my candidate is something in the world. "
Benveniste said that the only thing ALL languages had in common were the deictic markers: here vs there, that vs this, us vs them, I vs you, now vs then, etc.
That is, all languages map the world with respect to the situation of discourse. That makes a lot of sense to me, and thankfully limits what can be said about deep structure and referentiality.
Of course, this was forty years ago. Perhaps they've discovered something new. Otherwise, it's all conjecture.
Joanna