Ferdinand Mongin de

Saussure

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS

Ferdinand de Saussure•26 November 1857 –•22 February 1913

Ferdinand de Saussure•professor at the University of Geneva (1901-13)

Ferdinand de Saussure•widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics/semiology

RuqaiyaHasanarguesthat"theimpactofSaussure’stheoryofthelinguisticsignhasbeensuchthatmodernlinguistsandtheirtheorieshavesincebeenpositionedbyreferencetohim:theyareknownaspre-Saussurean,Saussurean,anti-Saussurean,post-Saussurean,ornon-Saussure".

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUSITICS(COURS DE LINGUISTIQUE GENERALE)

• A compilation of his lecture notes by Saussure’s former students –Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye.• Published at Lausanne and Paris in

1916.

"It became arguably the most influential work of linguistics of the twentieth century, and can be considered the foundation stone of structuralism."

- Giulio Lepschy

CharacteristicsofLanguage:

1)Languageisawell-definedobjectintheheterogeneousmassofspeechfacts.- localizedinthelimitedsegmentofthespeaking-circuitwhereanauditory

image becomesassociatedwitha

concept

CharacteristicsofLanguage:

- social sideofspeech,outsidetheindividualwhocannevercreatenormodifyitbyhimself;itexistsonlybyvirtueofasortofcontractsignedbythemembersofacommunity

CharacteristicsofLanguage:

- moreover,theindividualmustalwaysserveanapprenticeshipinordertolearnthefunctioningoflanguage;achildassimilatesitonlygradually.

2) Language, unlike speaking, is

something that we can study separately. We can dispense with the other elements of speech; indeed, the science of language is possible only if the other elements are excluded.

3) Whereas speech is heterogeneous, language, as defined, is

homogeneous. It is a system of signs in which the only essential thing is the union of meanings and sound-images, and in which both parts of the sign are psychological.

4) Language is concrete- Linguistic signs, though basically psychological, are not abstractions; - associations are realities that have their seat in the brain.

Besides, linguistic signs are tangible; it is possible to reduce them to conventional written symbols, whereas it would be impossible to provide detailed photographs of acts of speaking

In language, on the contrary, there is only the sound-image, and the latter can be translated into a fixed visual image. - language is a storehouse of sound-images, and writing is the tangible form of those images.

LANGUAGE AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION

A System of signs that express ideas, and therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-

mutes, symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc.

SEMIOLOGY (from Greek SEMEION = SIGN)

•Science that studies the life of signs within society

SEMIOLOGY (from Greek SEMEION = SIGN)

•- will show what constitutes signs and what laws govern them

SEMIOLOGY (from Greek SEMEION = SIGN)

•Linguistics is only part of this

LANGUAGE

•Not just a “name-giving” system

SIGN IS SOCIAL

•Cannot just be studied as a sign mechanism in the INDIVIDUAL

Saussure’ideas on linguistics

I: THE NATURE OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN

Language - based on a NAMING process, by which things get associated with a word or name.

- Assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words

- Does not indicate if the name is vocal or psychological in nature

- assumes that this linking is a very simple process

“Linguistic sign unites, NOT a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image.”

The linguistic SIGN (a key word) is made of the union of a conceptand a sound image. A more common way to define a linguistic SIGN is that a SIGN is the combination of a SIGNIFIER and a SIGNIFIED. Saussure says the sound image is the SIGNIFIER and the concept the SIGNIFIED.

According to Saussure, language is a system of signs. A sign functions like a coin with two sides. The first side consists of the form of the sign. The concept of the sign, on the other hand, refers to a mental image which registers in the mind.

A sign is a recognizable combination of a signifier with a particular signified.

� signifier : the word ‘Open’� signified concept : the shop is open for

business

PRINCIPLE 1

The arbitrary nature of the sign.

The sign by Saussure• - the sign relation is dyadic

• - essentially arbitrary motivated only by social convention. Saussure's theory has been

particularly influential in the study of linguistic signs.

arbitrary - no intrinsic or natural reason why a particular form signifies a particular concept.

TeacherMaestro

Guro

Signifier Signified

CONVENTIONThat’s what dictates rules of SIGNS, and NOT the intrinsic value of the word or gesture or symbol.

NEVERTHELESS:

SYMBOL – never wholly arbitrary

ARBITRARY – is not left to an individual; needs the acceptance of the “community”

Objections to ARBITRARINESS

ONOMATOPEIA

1) Never organic elements of a linguistic system

2) Few in number

3) Can also evolve

4) May even differ from one language to another

Objections to INTERJECTIONS

ONOMATOPEIA

1) Never organic elements of a linguistic system

2) Few in number

3) Can also evolve

4) May even differ from one language to another

PRINCIPLE 2

The linear nature of the Signifier.

PRINCIPLE 1

Being auditory, the signifier is unfolded solely in time from which it gets the following 2 characteristics:

1) It represents a span2) The span is measurable; it is a line

II: LINGUISTIC VALUE

Thought is a shapeless mass, which is only ordered by language. One of the questions philosophers have puzzled over for centuries is whether ideas can exist at all without language. No ideas preexist language; language itself gives shape to ideas and makes them expressible.The VALUE of a sign is determined, however, not by what signifiers get linked to what particular signifieds, but rather by the whole system of signs used within a community. VALUE is the product of a system or structure (LANGUE), not the result of individual relations (PAROLE).

III.SYNTAGMATIC AND ASSOCIATIVE RELATIONS

The most important kind of relation between units in a signifying system, is a SYNTAGMATIC relation. This means, basically, a LINEAR relation. In spoken or written language, words come out one by one .Because language is linear, it forms a chain, by which one unit is linked to the next.An example “”The cat sat on the mat””

“” The mat sat on the cat “”English word order :SVOJapanese word order:SOV etc.

SYNTAGMS

Combinations or relations formed by position within a chain are called SYNTAGMS. The terms within a syntagm acquire VALUE only because they stand in opposition to everything before or after them. Each term IS something because it is NOT something else in the sequence.

SYNTAGMS

SYNTAGMATIC relations are most crucial in written and spoken language, in DISCOURSE, where the ideas of time, linearity, and syntactical meaning are important.

ASSOCIATIVE

Signs are stored in your memory, for example, not in syntagmatic links or sentences, but in ASSOCIATIVE groups. "Education" "-tion":education, relation, association

ASSOCIATIVE

Similar associations: education, teacher, textbook, college, expensive.

Random set of linkages: education, baseball, computer games, psychoanalysis, etc

ASSOCIATIVE

ASSOCIATIVE relations are only in your head, not in the structure of language itself,

whereas SYNTAGMATIC relations are a product of linguistic structure.

Ferdinand Mongin de

Saussure

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS