Abstract

The article gives critical assessment of the problem of synchrony / diachrony, mythologized in the traditional reception of the views of Ferdinand de Saussure. The concept of F. de Saussure is known, first of all, in the presentation of “Course in General Linguistics”, published in 1916, compiled by fellow scientists. Saussure’s autographed materials, published in 2002, provide the basis to reconsider the main provisions of his scientific concept. The article presents an understanding of temporal states of language activity in the concept of the “new” Saussure. The careful reading of the autographs showed that the time was a key determinant of the existence of a linguistic object for the Swiss linguist. Saussure distinguishes language activity, language and speech, above all, by their temporal features, as well as by their functions. Language is a set of simultaneous diverse semiological relationships, i.e., it is idiosynchronous. Speech as a one-time statement and as a discursive situation in general is an action that is to create a sequential phonetic series. Saussure describes it as diachronic on a time basis and doesn’t associate it with the history of language. Language activity as a holistic function of human experience is both unchanging and functioning in time, i.e. continuous, panchronic.

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