Ferdinand de Saussure

Swiss Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure propounded the sign theory of language, which was published as class notes by his students posthumously in the book Cours de Linguistique Generale (Course in...

The first important feature of Saussure's linguistic theory is his participation in a shift from the primarily diachronic studies of earlier comparative philologists to synchronic studies. Second,...

Ferdinand de Saussure originated and defined the concepts of langue and parole in his seminal work Course in General Linguistics. These became the bedrock of twentieth century linguistics and...

Bloomfield came from the Neogrammarian school of linguistics. That means he focused on the historical aspects and evolution of languages. He studied particular languages, their history and how...

Structuralism posits that things cannot be understood outside of the context in which they appear. While at first glance this might seem self-evident, structuralism goes beyond mere historical...

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure developed the terms "langue" and "parole." "Langue" refers to the abstractions and rules of a language that are independent of the way speakers use that...

As discussed in the prior answer, Saussure was interested in introducing scientific rigor to the study of language, with specific emphasis on languages in their current form. In so doing, he not...

Both syntagmatic and paradigmatic analyses contribute to the inherent meaning and understanding of a given language. Syntagmatic relationships are created with the understanding that components of...

While it is easy to jump over Saussure's, shall we say, pure sign theory and go straight to applications or theories that grew out Saussure's discussion of sign, the four fundamentals of sign as...

Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure begins his essay “The Object of Study” with a question: What, indeed, is the object of study in the field of linguistics? The answer, he explains, is not as simple as...

Saussure's principle regarding "the arbitrariness of the sign" refer to how meanings of words are given purely arbitrarly compared to the physicality of the word. What that means is that words are...