Abstract
In the 1930’s, the School of Geneva and the School of Paris debated on the Saussurean’s primary principle of sign, one of the 20th-century main controversy in linguistics. The Saussurean’s axiom, based on the link between signifier (sound pattern) and signified (concept), is a premise of Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory. Many other equally important concepts emerged from this axiom such as the language considered as a system, the distinction between substance and form, signification and value, and finally the implicit equipollence of the content and the expression plans. The Saussurean’s axiom was only confirmed later with André Martinet’s conceptualization of double articulation of language. This article underlines the reasons behind the misunderstandings of and oppositions to this axiom, named by Saussure the “primary truth”.
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