Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics

 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.