Ferdiand de

Saussure

Father of Linguistics

Silvia Lee

Born:Geneva, Switzerland 1857

Father:Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure

MineralogistEntomologistTaxonomist

University of Geneva1875

Graduate Work:University of Leipzig 1876

l’Ecole pratique des hautes étudesTaught (11 years):• Sanskrit• Gothic• Old High German

Knight of the Legion

of Honor

University of Geneva 1891

Professor• Sanskrit• Indo-Eurpoean

langauges• Course of

General Linguistics (1907-1911)

Doctorate in 1880:

Dissertation on the Primitive Vowel System

in Indo-European

Languages

What is language?

Sign

Sign = abritary

Symbol = motivation

Sign

SignifiedSignifier

Value of the Sign

Emile Durkheim

•Father of sociology

•Social integration

Langue Parole

(system) (put into practice)

Language in social, cultural context

gay

Signs•Polysemous

•Unstable

•Endlessly shifting

•Create new meanings, new social contexts

The Arbitrary Nature of the Sign

system of relations

Objection 1: Onomoatopeoia

Objection 2: Interjections

Synchrony & Diachrony

complete systemat a given time

historical development

Synchrony:present and future

Paradigm (pattern)&

Syntagm (syntax)

Criticisms• Langue: complete system?

• Distinction: syntagm & paradigm

• Finite-state grammar

Claude Levi-Strauss

•Structuralism

•Family relations

Linguistics

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

•Linguistic relativity

•Language determines thought