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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Ferdinand de Saussure

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Ferdinand de Saussure by John E. Joseph LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2023 LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2023 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0003

Ferdinand de Saussure (b. 1857–d. 1913) is acknowledged as the founder of modern linguistics and semiology, and as having laid the groundwork for structuralism and post-structuralism. Born and educated in Geneva, in 1876 he went to the University of Leipzig, where he received a doctorate in 1881. While a student there he published the Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes (1879), which radically reimagined how the original Indo-European vowel system might be reconstructed. During the 1880s Saussure was lecturer in Gothic and Old High German at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, and he served as adjunct secretary of the Société de Linguistique de Paris and was responsible for the Société’s publications in which a number of his own papers appeared. He also began, but abandoned, several more ambitious projects. In 1891 he returned to Geneva to take up a chair in Sanskrit and comparative Indo-European philology. He began another project on the “double essence” of language that was never completed. His papers on Lithuanian accentuation from this period would earn recognition for “Saussure’s Law,” which applies to historical accent shifts in a particular category of Lithuanian words. The next decade saw him devote his attention to various topics, including local toponyms around Geneva, legends of the Germanic peoples who had settled in the area, and finally the search for anagrams in Greek and Latin poetry, but no publications resulted. In 1907 he was given responsibility for the university’s course in general linguistics, a course meant for students who lacked sufficient grounding in any ancient or medieval language to do in-depth textual study. Saussure had no experience in teaching a course in general linguistics, nor indeed had he ever taken one. Restructuring the course each of the three times he gave it, he brought in sign theory and other aspects of the grammaire générale tradition in which he himself had been taught (see John E. Joseph, Saussure [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012]) but that linguists had laid aside and forgotten in the intervening decades. Soon after his death in 1913, his colleagues Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, appreciating the extraordinary nature of his lectures, began gathering his manuscript notes and the notebooks of his students. From these they fashioned the Cours de linguistique générale (Course in general linguistics), published in 1916. It would become one of the most influential books of the twentieth century, not just for linguistics but also across many realms of intellectual endeavor. Many previously unpublished texts by Saussure have been appearing in recent years, principally in the volumes of the Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure . Various projects are underway for making photographic reproductions of the manuscript material online.

General Overviews

Because Saussure did not actually write the book that he is most famous for and that had the most direct impact on later linguistics, it is especially useful to approach his work in its broader context, rather than to focus exclusively on the Cours . Indeed, some Saussure scholars (most notably Simon Bouquet) maintain that the published Cours badly misrepresents Saussure’s ideas about language as recorded in his students’ notebooks, although others, probably a majority, consider such misrepresentations to be few in number and rarely to amount to serious distortion. The studies in this section are divided between those aimed at an audience looking for an initial introduction to Saussure and those that analyze his linguistic theories in depth. In both cases, the ones published before 1980 rarely take serious account of the manuscripts available up to that time, while those from the 1980s and 1990s do tend to look at the full scope of the material then available, and those from the 2000s and after are able to draw on new manuscripts that have come to light since 1996.

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Saussure's contribution in linguistics | Langue and Parole | Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relationships | Try.Fulfill

Discuss saussure's contribution to the study of language | difference between langue and parole | saussure's contribution in linguistics | difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships | syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships with diagram | sign signifier signified diagram | try.fulfill, saussure's contribution in linguistics:.

• ·        Saussure’s introduction.
• ·        Sign= signifier + signified .
• ·        Synchronic and diachronic axis .
• ·        Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships .
• ·         L angue and parole .

Ferdinand De Saussure , the founder of modern linguistics was born in 1857 and breathed for last in 1913. He was a Swiss linguist as well as semiotician. He contributed to the field of linguistics and semiotics. He is titled as the founder of structuralism . His famous book written on linguistics is ‘course in General Linguistics’ . Saussure’s contribution in linguistics circulated over several branches. His contribution on Sign, Synchronic and diachronic axis and Langue and parole is  prominent. 

Saussure improved the idea of sign which is further classified as the summation of signifier and signified . Signifier is the sound, word or image or the physical existence of the concept and signified is the mental concept. For example: An apple.

While a person see the image of an apple or written word ‘Apple`, he identifies a concept of a thing in his mind. Then he get the sign of the apple. 

Difference between syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships :

Saussure’s contribution in linguistics is also specified in the development of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships . In syntagmatic relationships , signs occur in sequence and they operate together. On the other side, in paradigmatic relationships , signs can be replaced by one another. Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relationships with diagram :

Difference between Synchronic and Diachronic Axes:

Saussure also contributed by improving the concept of synchronic and diachronic axes . Synchronic axis is the measurement of a language based on a particular time and a specific speech community. Rather, diachronic axis judges a language researching historical development of the language over different periods. Synchronic axis studies grammar, classification or arrangement of language while diachronic axis studies comparative linguistics and etymology.

• La langue ( The language system )
• La parole (The act of speaking )

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1 The signifier and the signified

• Published: January 2015
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This chapter takes on the classic signifier/signified distinction, which supports the structuralist view of language as a closed and autonomous system of signs. It considers the presentation of linguistic arbitrariness in relation to an individual sign in the Course in light of materials from the Nachlass, to suggest a possible editorial confusion between Saussure’s critique of the received view of language with its focus on individual names and his own conception of language as a relational system. It then explains that the view of language as a sign system is made more concrete when Saussure defines it as a set of historically sedimented conventions shared by a speaking community. Contrary to the structuralist view, language is shaped by reality: the reality of social conventions as they are transmitted, sedimented, and revised over time. Linguistic arbitrariness is a counterpart of this sociohistorical understanding.

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Saussure's Basic Principles of Structural Linguistics

By Julia Kinsley

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), was a Swiss Linguist who laid the great foundation of the field of Linguistics in 20tth century. The book Cours de Linguistiques Générale , written by his disciples published posthumously in 1916, is a compilation of his lectures given at University of Geneva around 1901 or 1906. It has become an essential text in the literary canon of linguistics as the book documents his research, ideas, and analysis of the nature of language that gives us a great insight into the basics of structural linguistics.

For anyone new to the linguistics, it becomes necessarily important to be thoroughly familiar with the major dichotomies or concepts that Saussure came up with in his Cours de Linguistiques Generale (1916). Through these principles or concepts, we can trace back the origins of the Structural Linguistics.

Langue & Parole

The language is constituted of two parts: langue and parole. And the linguistic communication is just not possible if these two work independently and individually. The Langue represents the system of language having signs, rules, and patterns devised by a particular social group for communication. The parole meaning the utterance of that Langue and thus, it varies from community to community and region to region. (However, this dichotomy is now overshadowed by Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance.)

For example, in English, an apple is called an apple whereas it is called яблоко (yabloko) in Russian. Hence, the langue in English has rules and patterns of letters which allows the parole to utter an apple as an apple. The same goes with the latter.

Paradigm & Syntagm

Saussure named the relation between the words corresponding to our the operation of our brain. A syntagmatic relation between words is when the words either spoken or written have different grammatical roles in the sentence. The syntagmatic structures the words in the sequence to form a meaningful whole. For example,

Rachael drinks juice a lot for keeping her body healthy.

On the contrary, a paradigmatic relation between the words will be when these two words can substitute each other in a sentence without affecting the meaning of the sentence. A paradigmatic

John likes to drink water a lot for keeping his body healthy.

Here are few more examples:

If you look closely at the table, you can see that horizontally when words are sequenced in order; it creates a meaningful whole that something is being eaten by someone whereas you may see that vertically, the words can be replaced without changing this meaning. This opposition of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationship is a dichotomy in linguistics.

Synchrony & Diachrony

Saussure analysed the nature of language through the two different and opposed perspectives: one he called synchronic and the other diachronic. Where synchrony studies the language existing in a particular point of time, diachronic studies the language concerning its historic development.

For example, you study the Old English in England, you are using a synchronic approach where you are limiting your study to a particular period of time.

But if you are researching on the evolution of English language and its use from Middle English to Modern English, it would be called a diachronic study or historical linguistics.

Arbitrariness of the Sign

Signs are the basic elements of the linguistic communication which Saussure called arbitrary. He believed that signs are understood best on the basis of what is signified (mental image) and what signifies (signifier). He argued that a word in any language is given the meaning through the functioning of signs which forms the relationship between signifier and signified. And this relationship he called purely arbitrary which has no logical meaning. Let us understand this through this example:

The word cat has no logic why it refers to a cat, and hence there are different names for the cat in various languages.

• Cat : The Signifier

A small mammal with four legs: The Signified

However, if we can name a cat as Meow, it can be said to be logical because the cat actually makes this sound.

• Meow : The Signifier

A small mammal with four legs which makes the sound meow : The Signified

Hence, Saussure concluded that the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary.

These were the central concepts of Saussure that made his successors study the use and function of language in a different perspective.

About the writer

Julia Kinsley is pursuing PhD from Leicester University. Her area of specialisation is historical linguistics and is currently working with Geoff and Francis as a professional proofreader.

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Saussurean Linguistics and Bakhtin’s Critique

• Howard Mancing 5 &
• Jennifer Marston William 6  
• First Online: 28 January 2022

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Part of the book series: Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance ((CSLP))

 This chapter briefly reviews the important contributions to the study of linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure, followed by a critique of these theories, particularly outlining the role of Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin in pointing out the shortcomings of Saussure’s work, namely its lack of regard for linguistic aspects such as change over time, syntax, and, most importantly for the purposes of this book, context.

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Brown, Donald E. 1991. Human Universals . New York: McGraw-Hill.

Chomsky, Noam. 1972 (1968). Language and Mind . New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Cook, Guy. 1994. “Contradictory Voices: A Dialogue Between Russian and Western European Linguists.” In Literature and the New Interdisciplinarity: Poetics, Linguistics, History . Ed. Roger D. Sell and Peter Verdonk. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 151–61.

Halmøy, Madeleine. 2016. The Norwegian Nominal System: A Neo-Saussurean Perspective . Berlin: de Gruyter.

Harland, Richard. 1993. Beyond Superstructuralism: The Syntagmatic Side of Language . London: Routledge.

Harris, Roy. 1987. Reading Saussure: A Critical Commentary on the Cours de linguistique générale. La Salle: Open Court.

Holland, Norman N. 1992. The Critical I . New York: Columbia UP.

Jackson, Leonard. 1991. The Poverty of Structuralism: Literature and Structuralist Theory . London: Longman.

Newmeyer, Frederick J. 2017. “Two Challenges for ‘Neo-Sassurean’ Approaches to Morphosyntax.” In Formal Models in the Study of Language . Ed. Joanna Blochowiak, et al. Cham: Springer. 49–64.

Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1986 (1916). Course in General Linguistics . Ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, with Albert Riedlinger. Trans. and annotated by Roy Harris. La Salle: Open Court.

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Taylor, John R. 1995 (1989). Linguistic Categorization: Prototypes in Linguistic Theory . Oxford: Clarendon P.

Voloshinov, V. N. 1986 (1929). Marxism and the Philosophy of Language . Trans. Ladislav Matejika and I. R. Titunik. Cambridge: Harvard UP.

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Mancing, H., Marston William, J. (2022). Saussurean Linguistics and Bakhtin’s Critique. In: Restoring the Human Context to Literary and Performance Studies. Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89078-0_2

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Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Saussurean Structuralism

Saussurean Structuralism

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on March 20, 2016 • ( 7 )

As Jacques Derrida pointed out, Saussure’s theory is based on binary oppositions or dyads, i.e., defining a unit in terms of what it is not, which give rise to oppositional pairs in which one is always superior to the other. The most fundamental binary opposition is related to the concept of sign, the basic unit of signification. In Saussure, the previously undivided sign gets divided into the signifier (the sound image) and the signified (the concept). Saussure stressed that the relationship between the signifier and the signified is conventional and arbitrary, and that both terms are psychological in nature. There is no one-to-one relation between the signifier and the signified. For instance the sound image “tree” may refer to different kinds of trees or it may even be a metaphor for forest. Therefore, it is inferred that meaning is arbitrary and unstable.

The second binary opposition is-that of the langue and parole, where langue refers to language as a structural system based on certain rules, while parole refers to an individual expression of language. The terms langue and parole are parallel to the terms competence and performance formulated by Chomsky. The binary opposition of synchronic and diachronic refers to the study of the structure and functions of language at a particular point of time, and over a period of time respectively. Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic axes refer to the axes of selection and combination respectively, where syntagmatic denotes the relationship of units/words in a linear pattern, while ‘paradigmatic, axis constitutes of the interchangeable units in a language.

The most significant of the binary oppositions that has been criticized by Derrida is that of speech and writing. Saussure privileged speech over writing owing to the subjectivity, authority and presence of the speaker. Derrida called this phonocentrism, a manifestation of the logocentrism, which literally means the centrality of the logos. “Logos” etymologically and historically means the “Word of God” and by extension, rationality, wisdom, law – all synonymous with power. Derrida describes logocentrism as the metaphysics of presence, and is opposed to the concept of the centrality of presence, because presence contains within itself, traces of absence, thereby deconstructing its very centrality. In connection to and in opposition to logocentrism, Derrida introduces “ecriture”, a French term roughly translated as writing – which exists beyond the logos and is characterised by absence and differance, where meaning is constantly under erasure, and does not have the authority of the logos, and is hence anti-logocentric. A related word, archi ecriture, refers to writing as an ultimate principle than as a derivative of logos. According to Derrida, even speech can be considered as a form of writing — writing on air waves, or into the memory of the listener. Thus the concept of ecriture subverts the superiority of speech over writing.

Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics proved to be of seminal influence in various fields such as Anthropology (Levi-Strauss), Semiology (Roland Barthes), the literary and philosophical concepts of Derrida, Marxist analysis of ideology by Althusser, psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, and analysis of language conducted by Feminists like Kristeva, Cixous, Irigaray.

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I liked this explanation, it helps to understand the binarity of structuralist linguistics.

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