BACKGROUND OF THE LINGUISTIC THEORIES (ESPECIALLY OF THE SIGN) IN FERDINAND DE SAUSURRE: FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY TO THE XIX CENTURY

Abstract

In this study, it is our objective to carry out a historical tour of the main antecedents that we can find on the linguistic theories in Ferdinand de Saussure, with special emphasis on the influences he took for the elaboration of his theory of the sign. To do this, given the philosophicalrationalist nature that supports his theoretical conceptions, we are going to study the hypotheses preceding his, which had a logical-speculative nature. In this sense, we will start with Classical Antiquity focusing on the contributions made by the main Greek philosophers (Socrates, Platon and Aristotle) on the language / thought duality and the origin motivated or not of linguistic signs. Next, we will address the medieval theories of scholasticism and its conception of language as a syntactic and paradigmatic system in which agreement and rection were of fundamental importance, as Saussure would explain centuries later, categorizing language as a formal and functional system. Next, we will carry out an overview of the rationalist linguistic thought conceived by El Brocense in the 16th century and made explicit in his Minerva. From him, Saussure would take the conception that reason was above any use or linguistic norm that tried to limit language. Later, already located in the seventeenth century, we will study the general and reasoned Grammar of Port-Royal and its influence on Ferdinand de Saussure, especially with regard to the conception of the two faces of the linguistic sign (meaning and signifier). Finally, we will review some of the late nineteenth century theories that influenced Saussure and that were basically those conceived by the Kazan and Moscow schools and by the thought of the American linguist W. D. Whitney. Finally, we will expose some of the fundamental concepts contained in Ferdinand de Saussure's General Linguistics Course in which he presented his linguistic theories