In the article the question of the existence of the Croatian literary language in the semiotic space, i.e. the system of culture, is taken into consideration. In order to affirm the idea of the justification of the very term Croatian language, and thus acceptance of the thesis of the existence of such a language, this argumentation is directed towards theoretical investigation in the semiotic field. There is an attempt to envisage that discussions in the post-Yugoslav linguistics are not the problem, conventionally speaking, ‘ontological’ but ‘epistemological’. Thus, it is not important the question whether the Croatian language or any other language, e.g. Montenegrin, exists but rather the following question: what does it mean that literary language exists or does not exist?

(cultural) semiotics; sociolinguistics, literary/standard langugae; Croatian language; codification of language; language policy