f de saussure course in general linguistics

Moreover, Stawarska takes on the 'challenge' raised by one of the foremost contemporary Saussure scholars, Simon Bouquet, to investigate the largely unexplored philosophical dimension of Saussure's thought (p. She undertakes to 'undo' this dogma, uncovering its roots in the editorial transformations of the original student notes. īeata Stawarska claims in this book that the structuralist interpretation of Saussure (based on Bally's and Sechehaye's edition) is still the official doctrine in the Anglophone world.

where the system was thought as static and closed and (2) the belief that the emphasis upon the linguistic system must be diametrically opposed to phenomenology'sf insistence on the speaking subject and its meaning-giving operations. The reinterpretation of Saussure has been developed especially in French but also to some extent in English scholarship. The received interpretation of his linguistics, made famous through the structuralists, has mainly been called into question regarding: (1) the notion that the theory was based on a series of dichotomies - signifier versus signified, language system ( langue) versus speech ( parole), synchrony versus diachrony, etc. Going back to the 'founding father' of these movements is therefore not only of historical interest but also of great philosophical importance, in particular since this influential book was the product of a rather high-handed editorial process by Saussure's colleagues, Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, who had not been present at the actual courses.Īlthough the student notes and many other manuscript sources have been in print for several decades, the more widespread reassessment of Saussure's thought in light of these sources is relatively recent. The publication a century ago of the Course in General Linguistics, allegedly by Ferdinand de Saussure, was a main impetus behind modern linguistics as well as the structuralist and post-structuralist movements.

F de saussure course in general linguistics