Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics
Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1916) is a summary of his
lectures at the University of Geneva from 1906 to 1911. Saussure examines the
relationship between speech and the evolution of language, and investigates
language as a structured system of signs.
The text includes an introduction to the history and subject-matter of linguistics;
an appendix entitled “Principles of Phonology;” and five main sections, entitled:
“Part One: General Principles,” “Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics,” “Part Three:
Diachronic Linguistics,” “Part Four: Geographical Linguistics,” and “Part Five:
Concerning Retrospective Linguistics.”
Saussure defines linguistics as the study of language, and as the study of the
manifestations of human speech. He says that linguistics is also concerned with
the history of languages, and with the social or cultural influences that shape the
development of language.
Linguistics includes such fields of study as: phonology (the study of the sound
patterns of language), phonetics (the study of the production and perception of
the sounds of speech), morphology (the study of word formation and
structure), syntax (the study of grammar and sentence structure), semantics (the
study of meaning), pragmatics (the study of the purposes and effects of uses of
language), and language acquisition.
Saussure draws a distinction between language (langue) and the activity of
speaking (parole). Speaking is an activity of the individual; language is the social
manifestation of speech. Language is a system of signs that evolves from the
activity of speech.
Language is a link between thought and sound, and is a means for thought to be
expressed as sound. Thoughts have to become ordered, and sounds have to be
articulated, for language to occur. Saussure says that language is really a
borderland between thought and sound, where thought and sound combine to
provide communication.
Spoken language includes the communication of concepts by means of soundimages
from the speaker to the listener. Language is a product of the speaker’s
communication of signs to the listener. Saussure says that a linguistic sign is a
combination of a concept and a sound-image. The concept is what is signified, and
the sound-image is the signifier. The combination of the signifier and the signified
is arbitrary; i.e., any sound-image can conceivably be used to signify a particular
concept.
A sign can be altered by a change in the relationship between the signifier and the
signified. According to Saussure, changes in linguistic signs originate in changes in
the social activity of speech.
Saussure says that linguistic signs are by nature linear, because they represent a
span in a single dimension. Auditory signifiers are linear, because they succeed
each other or form a chain. Visual signifiers, in contrast, may be grouped
simultaneously in several dimensions.
Relations between linguistic signs can be either: syntagmatic (linear, sequential,
or successive), or associative (substitutive, or having indeterminate order).
Saussure defines semiology as the study of signs, and says that linguistics is a part
of semiology. He maintains that written language exists for the purpose of
representing spoken language. A written word is an image of a vocal sign.
Saussure argues that language is a structured system of arbitrary signs. On the
other hand, symbols are not arbitrary. A symbol may be a signifier, but in contrast
to a sign, a symbol is never completely arbitrary. A symbol has a rational
relationship with what is signified.1
Linguistic signs may, to a varying extent, be changeable or unchangeable.
Deterrents to linguistic change include: the arbitrary nature of signs, the
multiplicity of signs necessary to form a language, and the complexity of the
structure of language. Factors that promote change in language include:
individual variation in the use of language, and the extent to which language can
be influenced by social forces.
Saussure distinguishes between synchronic (static) linguistics
and diachronic (evolutionary) linguistics. Synchronic linguistics is the study of
language at a particular point in time. Diachronic linguistics is the study of the
history or evolution of language.
According to Saussure, diachronic change originates in the social activity of
speech. Changes occur in individual patterns of speaking before becoming more
widely accepted as a part of language. Speaking is an activity which involves oral
and auditory communication between individuals. Language is the set of rules by
which individuals are able to understand each other.
Saussure says that nothing enters written language without having been tested in
spoken language.2 Language is changed by the rearranging and reinterpreting of
its units. A unit is a segment of the spoken chain that corresponds to a particular
concept.3 Saussure explains that the units of language can have a synchronic or
diachronic arrangement.
Saussure’s investigation of structural linguistics gives us a clear and concise
presentation of the view that language can be described in terms of structural
units. He explains that this structural aspect means that language also represents
a system of values. Linguistic value can be viewed as a quality of the signified, the
signifier, or the complete sign.
The linguistic value of a word (a signifier) comes from its property of standing for
a concept (the signified). The value of the signified comes from its relation to
other concepts. The value of the complete sign comes from the way in which it
unites the signifier and the signified.
Thus, Saussure shows that the meaning or signification of signs is established by
their relation to each other. The relation of signs to each other forms the
structure of language. Synchronic reality is found in the structure of language at a
given point in time. Diachronic reality is found in changes of language over a
period of time.
Saussure views language as having an inner duality, which is manifested by the
interaction of the synchronic and diachronic, the syntagmatic and associative, the
signifier and signified.
De Saussure – The Nature of the Linguistic Sign – summary
When discussing the nature of the linguist sign de Saussure criticizes the notion
that things precede words. When relating to the lingual sign what de
Saussure essentially does is to replace actual referential reality with the signified.
What the signifier points to is not something which exists outside of language, but
rather to a meaning which is contained within human consciousness. The division
between signifier and signified, which together compose Saussure's lingual sign, is
the basis for his subsequent proposition that everything gains it meaning out of
being in structural oppositional relations with other components.
When discussing the nature of the linguist sign de Saussure makes his famous
statement about to lingual sign being arbitrary. The arbitrariness of the lingual
sing is easily demonstrated by pointing to the fact that different languages have
different signs for the same denotations. But this points to another matter. Were
words representations of preexisting concepts all languages will have parallel
words. But we do know that different languages cover the world of meaning with
differently divided semantic networks. This means that language does not simply
describe reality, but is in fact something separate and autonomous from it. When
de Saussure says that the lingual sign is arbitrary he means it not it the sense that
anyone can make up words, quite the opposite, signs according to Saussure are all
conventions that are socially constructed. The linguistic sign, in other words, is
arbitrary but is not open for free choice; its meaning is imposed on us by our
linguistic surrounding.
De Saussure's ideas regarding the nature of the linguistic signs were of huge
influence in the 20th century and were the corner stone of both structuralism and
semiotics. Saussure's revolution is in making language relational into itself, it is
not fixed nor predetermined, and it was now up to philosophy, sociology,
linguistics and other adjacent fields to examine the manner in which a signifier is
tied to a signified.
