Course In General Linguistics Research Articles

European Parallel Traditions on Textual Studies apropos Translation Act in Indian Contexts: Charles Bally and Successors of Saussure

Comparative language studies have yielded various interesting results towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. European thinkers have worked a lot on areas which have provided the basis for later frameworks for textual analysis and critical study. This kind of textual study has impacted the frameworks of Translation Studies for comparative analysis of parallel texts between a pair of languages. The translation processes and training have been designed on the basis of the categories drawn from the comparative stylistic studies between the language pairs. By ‘translation act’, we understand here the fundamental stylistic categories which help us refine the translation skills while translating a text. This paper aims at understanding such impact on the textual analysis frameworks as used in the Translation Studies. The paper focuses especially on the writings of Charles Bally in the context of text analysis of the source and target language texts. The writings of Charles Bally and some related writings of Saussure are not readily available in English.1 Considering these writings the parallel 1 The book titled Course in General Linguistics is a book posthumously edited by eminent linguists Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye. The books originally written by Saussure like Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues Indo-Europèennes or related writings like Godel Robert, Notes inédites de Saussure are not available in English. Most of the writings of Saussure remain untranslated into English. These writings are important as they inform us about the methodology that Saussure employed in developing the understanding that is often presented to us. Course in General linguistics remains very sketchy in several aspects of Saussure’s theories. For information, the following sites may be consulted for further reading: 1. Godel Robert, Notes inédites de Saussure, this text is not available on internet archives. However, its reference can be found in several publications like European Parallel Traditions… 89 traditions of Europe, we explore the possibility of implementing the ideas of these traditions on the study of language pairs (English and Hindi) in the context of translation act. This implementation of these ideas for studying the language pairs for getting the principles regarding the translation act requires a comparative stylistic study between the pair of languages on which a translator is working. In this paper, the examples for illustrating the theoretical aspects of comparative stylistics discussed have been given from the language pair Hindi and English.

Language, the Signifier, and the “Point de Caption”: From Saussure to Lacan and Žižek

The paper aims to return to the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure to examine the application of the structural linguistic terminologies in Lacanian psychoanalysis and the critique of ideology by Slavoj Žižek. First, the author examines Saussure’s structural linguistics terminologies in his book Course in General Linguistics. Then, the differences between its original definitions and their application in Lacanian psychoanalysis and the critique of the ideology of Slavoj Žižek are compared. The author found that although the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan used various linguistic terminologies that are initially from Saussure’s structural linguistics, he radically rewrote those concepts and perfectly “quilt” them into his theory of psychoanalysis. Besides, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek carefully examined the Lacanian linguistic view and applied it to the critique of ideology. Indeed, many correlations between Lacanian linguistic terminologies and Saussure’s terminologies in his structural linguistics have been fully concerned by scholars around the world. Nevertheless, from the author’s point of view, it is essential for people nowadays who would like to examine contemporary philosophy deeply, psychoanalysis as well as the critique of ideology to return to Saussure’s book and carefully examine the original forms of the linguistic terms. Thus, this paper mainly focuses on the idea of Sassure’s structural linguistics to give readers some new inspiration by tracing the origin of structural linguistic terms.

Preface: Language Change and the New Millennium

All linguists, at some time in their studies, run headlong into fundamental issues associated with language change, and I could not celebrate the ESJ 12th anniversary without investigating the English Language of the New Millennium. Change in languages over time seems to be an inevitable constant. All languages have undergone and, if not dead, are undergoing change. As Ferdinand de Saussure put it more than a century ago, “the linguistic river never stops flowing” (Course in General Linguistics, 1916:110). The English language has been no exception and continues to be widely discussed from different areas or branches of linguistics, such as generative, historical, variationist or corpus linguistics. There is, however, much that still needs to be investigated.

Language as an “independent unit”: Ferdinand de Saussure vs. Paul Boyer

Didactics and semiotics are two fields that have been interconnected for a long time. Russian language teaching in France in the 20th century, especially in its first half, had several interesting didactic features closely related to the understanding of Ferdinand de Saussure’s theoretical conceptions. Through the works of influential Slavist professor Paul Boyer (1864–1949), some of Ferdinand de Saussure’s ideas became reflected in French didactics in a particular way, providing the basis for a new method of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The article offers an analysis of the textbook Manuel pour l’étude de la langue russe by Boyer and Nicolas Spéransky, as well as of the teaching method “language-in-itself ”, with the objective to identify the references to the Course in General Linguistics and to consider their reflection in didactics.

Akt założycielski polskiego strukturalizmu immanentnego: Juliusza Kleinera Treść i forma w poezji

In Polish literary studies methodology, Kleiner’s status as entirely marginal, if not anachronistic, can be justified only on one condition, namely if we overlook the study Content and form in poetry (“Przegląd Warszawski” 1922, r. 2, vol. 2, pp. 323–333), for it can be read as the rejected cornerstone of Polish immanent structuralism. Due to the ambiguity of the term “structuralism”, it is necessary to define its meaning here: it will be determined by the historical context, i.e. the Course in General Linguistics (first edition: 1916). Adopting Janusz Sławiński’s terminology, we may add that it is a rejected cornerstone of immanent (“unconscious”) structuralism not a formulated one.

Philosophical Origins of Methodological Nomothetism of F. de Saussure’s Concept

The article raises the problem of philosophical principles and origins of Ferdinand de Saussure’s views. The editors of “Course in General Linguistics”, C. Bally and A. Sechehaye, contributed to the emergence of stereotypes about Saussure as the founder of structuralism, who for the first time conceptually distinguished language and speech based on dichotomy, established the systemic nature of language as an abstract entity, developed a bilateral psychological theory of sign and divided linguistics into the synchronous and the diachronic. This prevented the synthesis of Saussure’s concept as a holistic and internally consistent anthropocentric system of views. The conceptual analysis of the fundamental theses of Saussure’s concept, given in Saussure’s autographed materials, which appeared in 2002, showed that its most important feature is that it was an anthropocentric nomothetic proposition aimed at creating the foundations for the study of human language activity as such, language as such and speech as such. The Kantian idea of anthropocentric transcendentalism can be considered the principal philosophical source of Saussure’s nomothetic project.

Vers une image nouvelle de la réception du CLG (1916) en Italie

Italian Linguistics before 1950 is still considered “asaussurean”, an adjective created in 1963 by Leroy to synthesize its peculiarities. In order to highlight the role of Italian Linguistics in the debate of general linguistics at that time, many latest essays on linguistics historiography in Italy aim to reevaluate those years, especially in relations to Saussure’s thought. With this article, I am bringing out two new aspects on the issue. The first one concerns with the Italian reception of the first edition of Course in general linguistics (1916, CGL): until now, the only reference is the review by Terracini (1919) while I intend to show that there are three more writings still neglected. The second one is the state of the art of this historiographical reevaluation, especially the one that concerns with the diffusion of Saussure’s thought in Italy before 1950.

Transposition didactique et manuélisation du CLG : le rôle de Bally et Sechehaye

We discuss the significance of teaching and learning as a goal in the writing of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics. First, by analyzing textbooks that Bally and Sechehaye published based on their own teaching before they started working on the CGL, we determine criteria defining university textbooks as a genre. Then, we examine the making of the CGL into a textbook (manuélisation) as an outcome of content adaptation for teaching and learning (transposition didactique). Finally, we illustrate these processes through the study of two notions: “appendix” (appendice) and “natural place” (place naturelle)

Saussure and the Political Potential of Language

Although the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure is widely recognised as the forerunner of structuralism, it is often treated in the humanities and social sciences today as a stepping stone toward more sophisticated, generalised semiotics and theories of discourse. As a result, social and political implications of Saussure’s original conception of language have frequently been underestimated. Drawing from the classic lecture Course in General Linguistics and the fragmented notes collected in Writings in General Linguistics, this article offers a reconstruction of the social and political dimensions that were present, albeit in an inchoate form, within Saussure’s own theorisation. To act as a foil to the reconstructed Saussurean position, this article calls upon an essay that charts the historical development of the concept of discourse authored by Ernesto Laclau, who is perhaps the most politically oriented thinker among the many inheritors of the Saussurean legacy.

THE NOTIONS AND TERMS “LANGUAGE”, “SPEECH”, “SPEECH ACTIVITY”, “LANGUAGE MATERIAL” IN THE THEORY OF LANGUAGE AND SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF AHMET BAYTURSYNULY

The article focuses on the issues of dichotomy and polychotomy from the following perspective: a) language and speech; b) language, speech, speech activity; c) language, speech, speech activity, language material.The author analyzes the works by A.Baytursynuly, the founder of Kazakh linguistics, linguodidactics, methodology and literary criticism, with the purpose of determining and describing his scientific views on the issue of dichotomy and polychotomy. In the scientific heritage of A.Baytursynuly, the issue of dichotomy and polychotomy is presented by the notions and terms – til (language), so'iley (speak), so'ilesu (communicate through speech, i.e. speech activity). The author considers these issues on the basis of the works devoted to the dichotomy and polychotomy by W. von Humboldt, F. de Saussure and L.V.Scherba. The article presents the analysis of terminological nomination of these notions in contemporary Kazakh linguistics, which is characterized by the continuity of terminological traditions of A.Baytursynuly and is closely related to the conceptions of W. von Humboldt and F. de Saussure. A.Baytursynuly differentiated language, speech, speech activity in the Kazakh language in 1914 in the work “Til-qural” (“Language – Instrumentation”) written in Arabic script, i.e. 19 years before the publication of the book by Ferdinand de Saussure in Russian “Course in General Linguistics” (1933). The author of the article puts forth his own terminological designation of the types of speech activity in the Kazakh language, taking into account the admissibility, but undesirability of some synonymous terminological nominations, functioning in the studies of both Kazakh linguists and linguists working on the material of other Turkic languages. 1) Til – language; tildesim – speech; tildesimdik qyzmet – speech activity; til materialy – language material; 2) Tyn’dalym – listening; so’ilesim – speaking; oqylym – reading; jazylym – writing; ishtei tildesim – inner speech; audarma tildesim – translation speech. In the research process, the methods of intralinguistic comparison and inter-linguistic comparison, as well as the semanticstylistic method and the method of linguistic description have been used.

ТЕМПОРАЛЬНІ СТАНИ МОВНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ: ДО ПРОБЛЕМИ РОЗРІЗНЕННЯ ОНТОЛОГІЧНИХ ТА ЕПІСТЕМОЛОГІЧНИХ ПОНЯТЬ У НАУКОВІЙ КОНЦЕПЦІЇ Ф. ДЕ СОССЮРА

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.

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

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

Ferdinand de Saussure on the Affinities Between Economics and Semiotics

The paper reconstructs, from the manuscripts of the Course in General Linguistics, Saussure’s reflections on the affinities and differences between linguistics and economics, particularly his model of commodities as signs and elements of the economic system, analogous to the verbal sign as a basic unit of the language system. Key notions of this comparison are signifies vs. signifieds arbitrariness, syntagmatic and paradigmatic association, positive vs. negative value, type and token, substance and form. The paper studies how H. Lefebvre, J. Baudrillard, Rossi-Landi, and the cultural anthropologists M. Sahlins, M. Douglas, and B, Isherwood apply elements of this model in analyses of goods and commodities. The paper argues that Saussure proposes a weak analogy, that one of its weaknesses is the comparison at the level of the word instead of the one of a proposition or an argument. It concludes with the affirmation that Saussure’s analogies have a great heuristic value for cultural semiotics.

L’ombre du Cours (1960-1980)

This paper studies the reception of Saussure’s thinking at the particular time when the reading of Course in General Linguistics came into contact with that of the anagrams. Between 1960 and 1980, the discovery of Saussure’s inquiries into poetics gave rise to passionate debates. We examine the main features, the issues and tacit knowledge which have characterized this first reception of Saussure’s anagrams. We show how, at that time, the anagrams impacted the reading of the Course in General Linguistics regarding three major points : linearity, the conception of the sign, and the role of the subject in Saussure’s theory.

INDICATORS FOR MEASURING DIALOGIC SPEECH AT PRE-SCHOOL AGE

One of the most important achievements of child development is the learning of a language and its activation through speech. Ferdinand de Saussure believes that “people use the rules of language to produce speech” [1]. In his essay “Course in general linguistics” he distinguishes between language, speech and speech activity. In his view, language is an element of speech activity, but it itself is an integrality. He describes speech activity as heterogeneous and belonging to both the individual and the social sphere. Saussure defines speech as an individual expression of language. Language is a system; speech - its realization.As means of communication, language can be considered as a social, biological or socio-psychological phenomenon. Itsdevelopment begins with birth and continues throughout life. The most intensive processes are those of its adoption in pre-school age. Through spoken communication, children meet their natural need for self-expression, self-assertion and self-actualization. Through the adopted language knowledge they exchange information and express their needs, thoughts, desires and feelings. This dynamic exchange of personally meaningful information through verbal channels can be defined as a dialogic associated speech.In the second half of the last century ontogenetic psycholinguistics greatly expanded its knowledge of how children master the language system, focusing on the linkage of linguistic ontogenesis with the perceptual and cognitive development of children.Linguistics describes the language system as a complex set of three main components with five distinct areas of linguistic functioning, which are differentiated in accordance to the content. Bloom and Lahey (1978) define the basic components of the language system: “a form, content and use” [2].If we accept Bloom and Lahey’s theory of the basic components of language and Chomsky’s theory (speech is an individual expression of language) when looking for criteria to study the dialogue in children, we can assume that dialogue is a process of dynamic exchange of structured language units of speech united by a mutually recognizable form which is structured in accordance to content.The main problem in exploring dialogic speech is the selection of the indicators with the help of which it will be measured. The factually measurable structures - productivity, autonomy, lexical-grammatical shaping of dialogue and integrity (according to Daskalova) are selected for the purposes of the study.

Derrida e a Linguística Estrutural – uma leitura do capítulo 1 de Gramatologia

Em sua leitura do Curso de Lingüística Geral, Derrida ressalta a grande contribuição de Saussure ao afirmar a natureza arbitrária e diferencial do signo linguístico. Derrida também percebe, porém, que, se por um lado o conceito de diferença foi fundamental para Saussure romper com a concepção “natural” de linguagem, por outro, ao introduzir o conceito de valor e hipostasiar a superioridade da fala sobre a escrita, Saussure reproduz o pensamento metafísico binário e hierarquizado. A partir da linguística saussuriana, Derrida propõe, então, uma ciência geral do “grama” como desconstrução da violência originária fundada na noção de valor.

Aspectos semióticos del discurso de denuncia social en el largometraje Carpinteros (2017) del cineasta dominicano José María Cabral

En este artículo se analiza la película dominicana Carpinteros (2017) de José María Cabral desde la perspectiva teórica del signo de Saussure en el Curso de lingüística general (1945) y desde la teoría del signo de Peirce descrita en su libro La ciencia de la semiótica (1986). Aunque hace más de un siglo que estos autores formularon sus teorías, esta película constituye un macrosigno multimodal que soporta el escrutinio teórico inmanente y trascendente del lenguaje. Por ello, el objetivo fue analizar el discurso ideológico de denuncia social como contenido de las formas semióticas. El procedimiento de análisis ha sido hermenéutico-triangular. Apliqué cuestionarios a tres grupos controles de semiólogos, cineastas y sociólogos en torno a la trilogía: lenguaje, cine y sociedad dominicana. Los resultados muestran correspondencias de estas teorías con la producción cinematográfica analizada. Concluyo proponiendo al lector el estudio de películas, y de otros textos multimodales, a partir de estos autores.

LANGUAGE IDEOLOGY OF TEENAGERS TOWARD THE CATEGORIES OF GENDER IN LANGSA KOTA

ABSTRAKSociolinguistics is a study or discussion of language related to the language Sociolinguistics consists of two elements of the word that is socio and linguistics. Linguistics is the study of language, especially the elements of language (speech, word, sentence) and the relationship between speakers who are part of the members of society.Sociolinguistics places the position of language in relation to its use in society. This means that sociolinguistics views language as primarily a social system and communication system, and is part of a particular society and culture. Hence language and use of language are not observed individually but are always associated with their activities in society.Every human being born into the world is elected into two types, women and men. Gender refers to differences in male and female characters based on cultural construction, relating to the nature of their status, position, and role in society as well as socially-culturally constructed gender differences.In sociolinguistics, language and gender have a very close relationship. There is the phrase "why do women talk differently from men?" In other words, we are concerned with several factors that make women prefer to use standard language compared to men. In this regard, it is worth examining the language as a social part, a deed of value, reflecting the complexity of social networks, politics, culture, and age and society relations.language ideology is ideas and beliefs about what a language is, how it works and how it should work, which are widely accepted in particular communities and which can be shown to be consequential for the way languages are both used and judged in the actual social practice of those communities. In the community of western intellectuals, for instance, one key language ideology is inherited from the tradition of ideas whose major exponents include John Locke (in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding) and Ferdinand de Saussure (in the reconstructed and posthumously published work whose English translation is titled A Course in General Linguistics). In this tradition, signs (or words they are usually treated as being the same thing) stand for ideas, language is the means for conveying those ideas from one mind to another, and the process is underwritten by a sort of social contract, whereby speakers of a given language agree to make the same signs stand for the same ideas.

Do signo à construção: o legado saussuriano e as abordagens construcionistas da gramática

A importância das proposições de Ferdinand de Saussure, apresentadas no Curso de Linguística Geral (CLG), para o estabelecimento dos pilares da dita Linguística Moderna é consenso entre os estudiosos da linguagem. Apesar disso, na literatura há pouco ou nenhum reconhecimento dos ecos das reflexões gramaticais do CLG sobre o modelo teórico da Gramática de Construções (GC), desenvolvido nos Estados Unidos no fim do século XX. Tendo isso em vista, este artigo propõe-se a: (i) mostrar de que maneira a GC oferece um caminho eminentemente saussuriano para a superação do hiato deixado pelo CLG no que tange ao tratamento da criatividade sintática e (ii) mais amplamente, avaliar a convergência – e eventuais divergências – entre a GC e o modelo gramatical esboçado no CLG. Espera-se, com isso, contribuir para uma reavaliação da extensão do legado de Saussure sobre a teorização gramatical contemporânea, reconhecendo-o como um (improvável?) antecessor da Gramática de Construções. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n44a1022

O ponto de vista do Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo sobre Saussure

Passados cem anos da publicação do Curso de Linguística Geral, os estudos linguísticos têm voltado atenção para a importância e a relativa atualidade do pensamento de Ferdinand de Saussure para a consolidação da linguística como ciência e para disciplinas nesse campo científico. Este trabalho, nessa direção, tem o objetivo de apresentar algumas contribuições do pensamento de Saussure para o Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo, especialmente na explicação do desenvolvimento humano. Consiste numa revisão bibliográfica de textos representativos do Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo que tratam da ressignificação e da integração de teses saussurianas a esse quadro teórico. Os textos apontam que há um processo de (re)descoberta de textos fundamentais de Saussure (manuscritos e notas), que, conjuntamente aos já largamente conhecidos, como o Curso de Linguística Geral, têm provocado reavaliações e ampliações de algumas de suas teses, relacionadas à linguística da fala, à língua como sistema social e, sobretudo, ao signo linguístico, suas características e seu papel no desenvolvimento humano nos planos filogenético e ontogenético. ---DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n44a1005