Saussure’s reception by language reformers in Turkey

Abstract

It is surprising that the Turkish public had to wait until 1976 to read a translation ofthe Cours de linguistique générale [Genel dilbilim dersleri], an influential work onthe national language reform of decades earlier. Ordered by the Turkish LanguageSociety and published in two volumes (appearing in 1976 and 1978), the translationwas followed in 1984 by a second edition with an updated vocabulary. Founded inthe decade following the proclamation of the new republic, the society’s missionwas to conceive and implement a language reform on a national scale. The translator,Berke Vardar (1934-1989), was an active theoretician and supporter of thelanguage reform, and a pioneer in introducing the discipline of linguistics in Turkey.The local context of the Cours’ publication in Turkey being closely related tothis controversial but extensive language reform, my contribution will be dedicatedto Saussure’s reception by language planners. Tahsin Yücel (1933-2016) made useof the arbitrary sign thesis to counter conservative objections against new wordsintroduced by modernist language planners. Massive elimination of Ottomanwords, quickly replaced by new ones – be they rediscovered “pure Turkish” orfreshly “made-up” ones – provoked considerable indignation in more conservativecircles. These objections were mainly targeted against linguistic intervention, seenas a destructive attack against the natural evolution of the language, besides beingultimately unproductive. Taking up the defence of the language reform, Yücelreclaimed individuals’ freedom in parole, referring to the Saussurean distinctionbetween parole and langue. Another Saussurean theme that he adopted is the distinctionbetween synchronic and diachronic, which accounts for present-day words’remoteness from their earlier ancestors without discrediting language change. Finally,by recalling the arbitrary character of the linguistic sign, he refuted the claimthat old words were more genuine, or that they held a special relation to the conceptthat they signify.