2.3 Saussure's Contributions to Linguistics

(1) Semiotics: Signifier and Signified

Language is a subject based on symbol and meaning.

The signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image. A word is simply a jumble of letters.

The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier.

The sign is the whole that results from the association of the signifier with the signified.The relationship between the signifier and the signified is referred to as “signification.”

(2) Syntagmatic Relation and Paradigmatic Relation

1) Any structure is formed by two principal types of relations identified by Saussure as Syntagmatic Relation and Paradigmatic Relation.

2) The Syntagmatic Relation is a relation between one item and other in a sequence, or between elements which are all present.

3) The Paradigmatic Relation is a relation between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the other absent.

4) Saussure suggested that meaning was to be found within the structure of a whole language rather than in the analysis of individual words.

(3) Langue and Parole

1) Langue refers to the abstract linguistic system shared by all the members of a speech community.

2) Parole refers to the realization of langue in actual use.

3) The difference between langue and parole is obvious:

· Langue is abstract and parole is concrete;

· Langue is a generally accepted way of communication. Parole is simply a personal choice;

· Langue is relatively fixed and parole is temporary.

4) From other aspects, langue and parole are closely related:

· Langue makes parole understandable, and parole is a necessary part of langue;

· Parole without langue can only become meaningless sound pattern. Langue without parole can only express very limited ideas.

In linguistics study, langue is the goal and parole is the tool.

(4) Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches

Syntagmatic relations and paradigmatic relations are the nucleus of Saussurian theory.

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.

The defining difference between diachronic and synchronic linguistics study has to do with time:

· All linguistic study prior to Saussure was diachronic;

· Synchronic linguistics studies language in a fixed time period without reference to any other time period, either past or future.

(5) Spoken Language and Written Language

Ferdinand de Saussure did not publish many works during his life time. When he was studying in Germany in the 1870s, he wrote four articles on Indo-European, Greek and Latin matters. In 1878, the twenty-year-old Saussure finished his masterpiece, the only book that he ever published, Memoir on the Primitive System of Vowels in Indo-European Languages, which concerns the vocalism of Indo-European. On the one hand, the book refers to the vowels that can be reconstructed for the parent language. On the other hand, it also refers to the phenomena of vocalic alternation which show grammatical contrasts. The striking character of the book is that Saussure solves many difficulties and a number of more substantial problems. However, after the publication, this book received silence and rejection from German scholars.

Saussure's most influential work, Course in General Linguistics, which was posthumously published in 1916, is considered Saussure's most influential work. His ideas in this book leave a monumental impact on modern linguistics.

This book does not contain his actual words, but notes of his three courses taken by his students and then edited and published by his students Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye in 1916.