Writings in General Linguistics

by de Saussure, Ferdinand; Bouquet, Simon; Engler, Rudolf

• ISBN13: 9780199261444
• ISBN10: 019926144X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-09-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique générale was posthumously composed by his students from the notes they had made at his lectures. The book became one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, giving direction to modern linguistics and inspiration to literary and cultural theory. Before he died Saussure told friends he was writing up the lectures himself but no evidence of this was found. Eighty years later in 1996 a manuscript in Saussure's hand was discovered in the orangerie of his family house in Geneva. This proved to be the missing original of the great work. It is published now in English for the first time in an edition edited by Simon Bouquet and Rudolf Engler, and translated and introduced by Carol Sanders and Matthew Pires, all leading Saussure scholars. The book includes an earlier discovered manuscript on the philosophy of language, Saussure's own notes for lectures, and a comprehensive bibliography of major work on Saussure from 1970 to 2004. It is remarkable that for eighty years the understanding of Saussure's thought has depended on an incomplete and non-definitive text, the sometimes aphoristic formulations of which gave rise to many creative interpretations and arguments for and against Saussure. Did he, or did he not, see language as a-social and a-historical? Did he, or did he not, rule out the study of speech within linguistics? Was he a reductionist? These disputes and many others can now be resolved on the basis of the work now published. This reveals new depth and subtetly in Saussure's thoughts on the nature and complex workings of language, particularly his famous binary oppositions between form and meaning, the sign and what is signified, and language (langue) and its performance (parole).

Author Biography

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) was professor at the University of Geneva (1901-13). Memoire sur le systeme primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-europeennes was published in 1879 but his Cours de linguistique generale was posthumously compiled from his students' lecture notes and did not appear until 1916. "It became," wrote Giulio Lepschy, "arguably the most influential work of linguistics of the twentieth century, and can be considered the foundation stone of structuralism."
Simon Bouquet is President of the Institut Ferdinand de Saussure in Switzerland. He is a researcher at the University of Berne and lectures at the University of Paris. He has made the manuscript texts of Saussure better known through critical editions: his and Rudolph Engler's edition of the Ecrits de linguistique generale is frequently referred to in this volume.
Rudolf Engler (1930-2003) taught for many years at the University of Berne. He wrote prolifically on Saussure, making frequent contributions to the Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure. He is known for his comparative critical edition of the student notes for Saussure's lectures on general linguistics and for co-editing the Ecrits de linguistique generale with Simon Bouquet.
Translators
Carol Sanders is Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Surrey. She was the founding president of the Association for French Language Studies and has lectured in French at universities in Great Britain, Australia, and the West Indies. She is the editor of The French Language Today (1993), and the Cambridge Companion to Saussure (2004) both published by Cambridge University Press.
Matthew Pires is Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of Franche-Comte, and a visiting lecturer at the University of London Institute in Paris. In addition to his work on Saussure, his research concerns sociolinguistic approaches to onomastics and address forms in writing.
Peter Figueroa studied philosophy in Italy, Belgium and France before doing a doctorate in sociology at the LSE. He was a Research Officer in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Oxford and has lectured at the Australian National University, the University of Southampton, and at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	x
Preface by Simon Bouquet and Rudolf Engler	xi
Textual Conventions	xvii
Introduction by Carol Sanders	xviii
PART ONE: ON THE DUAL ESSENCE OF LANGUAGE (FROM THE ORANGERY MANUSCRIPTS)
1 Preface*	3	(1)
2 Points of view	3	(4)
2a Dual essence: The 'first and last' principle of duality	3	(1)
2b Identifying linguistic entities*	4	(1)
2c The nature of the object in linguistics*	5	(1)
2d The principle of dualism	6	(1)
2e Four points of view	6	(1)
3 The object of linguistics	7	(7)
3a Approaching the object	7	(1)
3b Linguistics and phonetics	8	(1)
3c Presence and relationship of sounds	9	(2)
3d Physiological-acoustic domain of the vocal figure	11	(1)
3e Comments on palatal gutturals from the physiological and acoustic point of view"	11	(1)
3f Value, meaning, signification ...	12	(1)
3g Value and forms	13	(1)
4 Phonetics and morphology	14	(1)
4a Phonetics and morphology, 1	14	(1)
4b Phonetics and morphology, 2	14	(1)
5 Identify and difference	15	(2)
5a Sound and meaning	15	(1)
5b Identity—Entities	15	(1)
5c Identity—March of ideas	16	(1)
6 Morphology and form	17	(6)
6a Reflections on the procedures of the linguist	17	(1)
6b Morphology—État de langue	18	(1)
6c Form	19	(1)
6d Difference and lack of difference	19	(1)
6e Form—Vocal figure	20	(3)
7 Phonetic change and semantic change	23	(2)
8 Semiology	25	(1)
9 Note to the reader	26	(2)
10 Essence, etc.*	28	(3)
10a Instantaneous and phonetic viewpoints. State	28	(3)
10b The cacuminal n rule	31	(1)
11 Different signs	31	(2)
12 Life of language	33	(1)
13 Grammar: categories	34	(1)
14 Grammar: rules	35	(1)
15 Synchronic phonetic rules	36	(2)
16 Features of rules for synchronic phonetics''	38	(1)
17 Actual parole and potential parole	39	(1)
18 Parallelism	40	(1)
19 Alternation	41	(1)
20 Negativity and difference	42	(1)
20a Negativity and difference, 1	42	(1)
20b Negativity and difference, 2	42	(1)
21 Identification; relative values, point of view	43	(1)
22 Signs and signification	44	(3)
22a. Phonetics and morphology	44	(2)
22b Fundamental principle of semiology	46	(1)
23 Literal and figurative meaning	47	(1)
24 Signs and negativity	48	(1)
25 On the negativity of synonymy	49	(1)
26 Question of synonymy (continued)	50	(1)
27 On essence*	51	(3)
28 Index*	54	(1)
29 Varia	55	(8)
29a A language system	55	(1)
29b Difference and entities	56	(1)
29c Relative situation of internal and external domains*	57	(1)
29d Synthetic aspect*	57	(1)
29e Etymological identicalness*	57	(1)
29f Historical syntax	58	(1)
29g Analogical change	58	(1)
29h Central object of linguistics	59	(1)
29i Morphological innovation	59	(1)
29j Integration or retrospective reflection	60	(3)
PART TWO: MISCELLANY AND APHORISMS
I New miscellaneous notes (from the Orangery manuscripts)	63	(3)
1 Kenome	63	(1)
2 The question of origins—Stream	63	(1)
3 Fundamental elements—Sound per se—Sentence-as-ritual-Linguistic unit (Sign–Sound–Meaning)	64	(1)
4 Discourse as a site of modifications—Organization of this book	64	(1)
5 Situation of linguistics—The linguistic unit	65	(1)
6 Sign and signification—Semiological facts	66	(1)
II Early miscellaneous notes (from the Engler edition)	66	(16)
III Aphorisms (from the Engler edition)	82	(3)
PART THREE: FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON GENERAL LINGUISTICS
I New documents (from the Orangery manuscripts)	85	(5)
1 Langage—Langue—Parole	85	(2)
2 Sign	87	(1)
3 Intuition—Induction	87	(1)
4 About Latin compounds of the type agricola	88	(1)
5 faber—Faure (Favre, Fevre, Lefevre, Lefebure)	89	(1)
II Early documents (from the Engler edition)	90	(107)
1 Phonology	90	(3)
2 Lectures	93	(1)
2a First lecture at the University of Geneva, November 1891	93	(1)
2b Second lecture at the University of Geneva, November 1891	104	(1)
2c Third lecture at the University of Geneva, November 1891	109	(7)
3 On the expression 'Comparative grammar'	116	(1)
3a Note on the history of languages; critique of the expression 'Comparative grammar', 1	116	(1)
3b Critique of the expression 'Comparative grammar', 2	117	(1)
4 Distinction between literature, philology, linguistics	118	(1)
5 Phonetic facts imply two periods	119	(1)
6 Phonology	119	(1)
6a Phonology, 1	119	(1)
6b Phonology, 2	119	(3)
7 Characteristics of language I	I20
8 Morphology	122	(13)
9 Critique of the divisions in use in scientific grammars	135	(1)
10 Notes for a book on general liguistics	136	(1)
10a Notes for a book on general linguistics, 1 (1893-1894)	136	(2)
10b Notes for a book on general linguistics, 2	138	(1)
10c Notes for a book on general linguistics, 3	139	(1)
11 Notes for an article on Whitney	140	(16)
12 Status and motus	156	(1)
12a Status and motus. Notes for a book on general linguistics, 1	156	(2)
12b Status and motus. Notes for a book on general linguistics, 2	158	(7)
13 On the difficulties of terminology in linguistics	165	(1)
13a On the difficulties of terminology: 'no more figures!'	165	(1)
13b On the difficulties of terminology: simple expression	166	(1)
14 On articulation	167	(1)
14a On articulation	167	(1)
14b Implosion + implosion	167	(1)
14c Theory of the syllable (1897?)	168	(5)
14d Notes on phonology; aperture; theory of the syllable (1897?)	173	(10)
15 Lingustic entitities	183	(1)
15a What sort of entities do we find within linguistics?	183	(1)
15b Reflexions concerning entities	183	(1)
16 Anatomy and physiology	184	(1)
17 Notes on Programme et methodes de la linguistique theorique by Albert Sechehaye, 1908	184	(3)
18 Miscellaneous unclassified notes	187	(1)
19 Semiology	188	(3)
20 Event, state, analogy	191	(1)
21 Families of languages	192	(1)
22 Prefixes or prepositions	193	(1)
23 Alternations	194	(1)
24 Report on the creation of a professorship in stylistics	195	(2)
III Note on discourse (from the Orangery manuscripts)	197	(1)
IV Unde exoriar (from the Orangery manuscripts)	197	(4)
PART FOUR: NOTES FOR THE COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS
I New documents (from the Orangery manuscripts)	201	(6)
1 Immaterial nature of units of langue	201	(1)
2 Unimportance of the instrument	201	(1)
3 Langue	201	(1)
4 Semiology	201	(1)
5 Sign systems—Community	202	(1)
6 Value—Community	203	(1)
7 Geographical discontinuity	204	(3)
8 Interaction	207	(1)
II Early Documents (from the Engler edition)	207	(34)
1 Notes for the First Course (1907)	207	(1)
2 Notes for the Second Course (1908-1909)	208	(1)
2a Dualities	208	(1)
2b Whitney	209	(4)
2c Celtic languages	213	(1)
3 Notes for the Third Course (1910-1911)	214	(1)
3a Structure of the course and geographical linguistics	214	(17)
3b Analysis of the acoustic chain	231	(2)
3c Nomenclature	233	(1)
3d Entities and segments	233	(1)
3e Arbitrariness of the sign and notion of term	233	(1)
3f Need for signs to alter; synchrony and diachrony	234	(5)
3g Linguistic value	239	(2)
A Saussure Bibliography 1970-2004 by Matthew Pires and Carol Sanders	241	(88)
Index	329