Structure vs System

Structure:

• A notion of unity existing above particular segments or features, of a whole above the composing and functioning elements.

• The idea of structure presupposes the reduction or breaking down of linguistic segments or features.

System

• is to be contrasted with the idea of inventory (a non-ordered list of elements) that was important and prevalent at one stage in the development of linguistics.

Contribution of Ferdinand de Saussure

Course in General Linguistics

• the most influential work, was published posthumously in 1916 by former students Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye on the basis of notes taken from Saussure's lectures at the University of Geneva.

• Saussure believed that language is a System of Signs. This sign is the union of a form and an idea, which he called the signifier signifier and the signified.

The influence of sociology on Saussure

• language was much influenced by French sociologist Emile Durkheim, who stated that sociology was “the science of social facts.”

• by stating that language is a social fact, implying that in language there are values, cultural norms and social structure shared by the members of a society.

Saussure’s Concepts about Language

1/ langage, langue and parole

2/ Synchronic view of language instead the diachronic one

3/ The semiotic theory of ‘Signifie’ and ‘signifiant’

4/ Descriptive vs prescriptive study of language

5/ Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of language

Diachrony vs. Synchrony

Diachronic linguistics

• views the historical development of a language. (E g., the change in sound system of English from old English to modern English)

Synchronic linguistics

• views a particular state of a language at some given point in time.( study the syntax of American English in the early twenty-first century)

Langage and Langue vs Parole

Langage:

• language in general. The most abstract concept of means of communication using verbal signs, both in written and spoken form. This concept does not refer to any particular language in the world, the ideal form of language. It is Human’s possession.

Langue:

• a particular language Langue is that part of Language which ‘is not complete in any individual, but exists only in the collectivity’

Parole:

• the language of an individual. Parole is observable in the behaviour of the individual. According to Saussure, it is not homogeneous

Theory of signs (semiotics)

Signifier vs. Signified

• Saussure believed that language is a system of signs. In linguistics the sign has ‘two faces ’ which cannot be separated. The sign is the union of a form and an idea, which Saussure called:

  Signifier ‘signifiant’

  • the physical set of sounds / the accoustic (sound)image

Signified ‘signifie’

• A particular mental image / thing meant

Paradigmatic vs. Syntagmatic Relationships

paradigmatic relationship

• involves signs that can replace each other, usually changing the meaning with the substitution.

• It is a relation that holds between elements of the same category.

• SUBSTITUTION

syntagmatic relationship

• involves a sequence of signs that together create meaning.

• According to Saussure, discourse is linear in nature because all language chunks are chained together in a sequence.

• POSITINING

The concept of Arbitrariness

• The concept of the ‘arbitrary sign’ suggests a relationship between signifier and signified where there is no apparent reason why a specific form should signify a specific meaning.

• Ferdinand de Saussure (1966) stressed that the relationship between the sound (or form) of a spoken (or written) word and its meaning is ‘arbitrary and conventional’.

• The word ‘tree’, for example, does not give any (iconic) clues about what the thing being referred to looks like or what it is.

Traditional grammar Vs. Linguistics

Linguistics differs from traditional grammar in three principal aspects:

1/ Linguistics describes language; it does not prescribe the rules of its ‘correctness’, which is the task of traditional grammar. They are interested in any linguistic form, be it ‘standard’ or ‘non-standard’.

2/Linguists regard the spoken language as primary and therefore more important than the written language. Traditional grammar over-stresses the importance of the written word, which is ‘permanent’ and recorded in the classical works.

3/Traditional grammarians tend to consider Latin grammar as a universal framework into which the descriptions of all languages fit. To linguists, it is unthinkable to judge one language by the standards of another. Linguists try to expose a universal framework which is shared by all languages, but which does not belong to a particular language.