 out of the play is to
&gt;toss out the empirical baby with the hypostatical
&gt;bath-water.

Im afraid I don't agree. Apply your reasoning to, say, physics. 
Physics is done by physicists, and they argue with one another in 
language, just like all the other agents swarming over the globe. But 
it doesnt follow that one cannot understand physics without invoking 
agency, or that the subject-matter of physics is irreducibly triadic 
or cannot be begun without worrying about the pragmatics of usage of 
physi