Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2

Saussure- A Guide for the Perplexed

By Paul Bouissac

CHAPTER 5

LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE: SAUSSURE’S DISTINCTION BETWEEN LANGUE(LANGUAGE AS SYSTEM) AND PAROLE (LANGUAGE IN USE)

PART 1- PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION

Source: Manuscripts discovered in 1996, translated from French intoEnglish in 2006

Problems of translation: There are many ambiguities attached to themeaning of French words used by Saussure in his works. Many atimes, a word, in spoken and written form, has many unrelatedmeanings. For instance, left as opposed to right and left as opposed tostayed and right as opposed to wrong and as different from write. Mostof the times, the meaning intended is clear through the semanticand grammatical contexts. However, some words can receive a rangeof meanings when they are used both metaphorically and technically.For instance, pocket in case of language of garments and inexpressions like pocket of infection in medical context and pocket ofresistance in warfare. In the same way, the word langage in French canhave a variety of meanings as ‘language’ in English- it can standfor the:

Human capacity to express ideas regardless of the language Any language which did exist or have existed in the world Any form of communication

Thus, in translating langage as ‘language’, we end up with multipleinterpretations which do not only talk about natural or articulatelanguage but also in analogical and metaphorical manner. The Frenchword langue is a particularized form of langage which refers toarticulate language- sort of like ‘tongue’ in English. Langue and‘tongue’ also refer to the muscle which is located in the mouth and

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2is used for production of sounds of a language. While it ispossible to understand which interpretation of langage Saussure wasreferring to using the semantic context, it is not possible to dothe same with langue for which he provided a technical definition.

PART 2- SAUSSURE’S APPROACH TO FOUNDNG LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE

Multiple viewpoints of approaching language- Saussure aimed atestablishing the science of language. There are multiple ways ofapproaching language: as a social phenomenon, neuro-motorphenomenon, historical phenomenon and others. In his pursuit offinding out which approach could be used to grasp language and ifit were possible to combine all these points of view, Saussurebegan by defining what the object of the science of language is. Hecalled it ‘la langue’.

Analytic and synthetic methodology of science: The methodologiesused to do science can be broadly categorized as: analytic andsynthetic. Analytic refers to bottoms-up approach, where we startwith data and build hypotheses. These hypotheses are explanationwhich would let us reach a law or formula to account for the data.(Bottom- data TO Up- Law or formula) This is the methodfollowed by empirical sciences. This method cannot be followed instudying languages because of the diversity, heterogeneity andincoherence of data of languages. It is not possible to come toclear basic units by investigating language from multipleviewpoints.

In the synthetic method, we follow the top-down approach. Thepremises we start with are based on axioms and postulates based on‘strong intellectual evidence’. Once we reach a hypothesis, we useit to test all the data. (Top- Premises and hypotheses TO Bottom-data) So, he began with certain number of evidentpropositions which were considered irrefutable and went on to findout the truth about language. From his study, he concluded:language was both a system and an institution. Here, language

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2refers to spoken language, which arrived in the evolutionaryhistory of human beings way before the coming of written languagewhich arrived for particular functions like invoking of deities,recording of economic transactions and establishment of ownership.

Langue- Langue is considered to be the essential form of that whichis universal to language of the past, present and future. It is theground in the absence of which language would cease to have itslinguistic relevance. It is in virtue of its universality thatSaussure believed the essential system of langue could be the baseof a science.

PART 3- A KEY NOTION- LANGUE (LANGUAGE AS SYSTEM)

Langue- language as a system- is considered to be that whichconceptualizes our experience of the world and expresses ideas.However, it is not possible to reduce langue as being a systemicaggregate of these or any other functions it might come to serve inhuman activities. According to Suassure, langue is ‘a close set ofrelations between terms that can be understood only as mutuallydefined values.’ Langue is more precisely defined as system ofsigns. No mathematical model was put up to exemplify this idea. Inbeing a system of such relations, langue is capable of reflectingour mental being completely. The values of the terms we use aredetermined within the lines of the set.

Analogy to chess game- Drawing an analogy with game of chess,Saussure said that in the game of chess, the value of each piece isdecided on the basis of the position of other pieces. Regardless ofthe language spoken by its players or names given to the pieces,the values of the pieces are mutually defined such that every moveof a piece continually determines the mutually definable values ofthe other pieces. Thus, the meaning of each move is only under thesystem of rules of the chess game. However, such a system of rulesis also arbitrary and can be changed at any time because the gameitself is a human institution. The change in the rule of one piece

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2will result in a change in the rules of all the other pieces. Thesimilarity between langue and chess game is that langue is a set ofwords, as the chess is set of pieces. The values of the words aredetermined by the set of relationships they have with other words,much like the value of a piece in a chess game is determined by thevalue of the other pieces. The values of the pieces (knowing whichboxes each piece stands in) encompasses the universe of chess game,much like langue encompasses the universe of the speakers. Therules of the chess game tell us which moves we can make while therules of langue tell us what we can say. Though the rules andproperties of langue are arbitrary, while the rules of chess gamecan be changed at will in principle, it is not possible to changethe rules of langue arbitrarily.

To Saussure, it did not matter how the differences between theunits of a language were explicated- visually or auditorily- aslong as a network of related differences could be formed such thatthe values of units of the language were determinable. ThoughSaussure did express this idea of langue, he did not establish theformal representation of the system or put forward how it actuallyworks. His attempts at representation of langue through algebra orgeometry proved in vain as he found that the complexity of langueincluding the types of opposites and their vastness could not beexpressed through mathematical equations.

PART 4- WHERE IS LANGUE LOCATED?

Nature of langue and its embodiment in human brain- Langue is thatwhich makes it possible to communicate and understand each otherwithin a linguistic community. It is not possible to use linguisticforms of the past to understand the langue of current system.Saussure believed that langue was ‘concrete’, that is, not abstractand such that its template was placed in individual brains. Inusing a certain language, the speakers partake of the resourcesprovided by their langue- they choose certain relations or valueswhich produce significations for oneself and for the others in the

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2conversation who share the same langue. Metaphorically, thecognitive brain was seen as a set of interconnected boxes or files.Keeping in view the state of neurology at his time, he could notestablish how langue was internalized and embodied in the brain asa formal system. The embodiment of langue would also explain theway in which other means of communication than speaking function.These include maritime signaling with use of flags and socialetiquette. His idea of the encompassing of all forms ofcommunication as operations of langue is today an integral part ofsemiology.

Langue’s continually changing character and uselessness ofhistorical linguistics: Langue is the “conceptual snapshot..of thesystem that sustains verbal communication at the moment when ittakes place” (82). Devoid of any permanent features, languecontinually transitions between different states of langue. Thepurpose of langue is to make communication possible. Communicationbecomes possible because the different forms of langue existent ata particular moment are determined through one another. In theseinterrelations, they form a system. Historical linguistics studiesthe transition of individual forms of langue over time. However,such a study cannot reveal the essence of language, langue. Thispoint can be explained metaphorically through the differencebetween geology and geography- a point also brought up frequentlyby Saussure. A person traveling from point A to point B will findthe knowledge of the existence of a valley at a certain place onthe way useless. What concerns her is the current state of thelandscape which could better or deter her during the trip. In thesame way, understanding the history of a certain word is not ofmuch significance since the use of the word- the context containingnetwork of phonological and semantic differences- will allow todistinguish ‘water’ from ‘wine’, ‘batter’, ‘air’ and others. Langueis a system where every move repositions all the other pieces suchthat the geometry of the whole system is transformed.

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2# Phonology- study of speech sounds used in a language- part oflinguisticsSemantics- the meaning or relationship of meanings of a sign or setof signsSemiotics- branch of semiotic dealing with the relations betweensigns and what they refer to and including theories of denotation,extension, naming and truth. Semiology- study of signs

PART 5- LANGUE AS AN INSTITUTION

Langue is not only a self-contained system of relations but also asocial phenomenon. In calling langue a social institution, he didnot mean that it was created by the society but that the societyhas no ultimate control on the language. It is without muchawareness of the system that we use the langue. The constant verbalintercourse is our raw material which makes the witness of languepossible.

Langue is acquired by each individual from the preceding generationas well as from all the people with whom one converses since thebeginning of one’s life. It is not possible to precisely pin pointthe way in which linguistic conventions have undergonetransformations over time. Moreover, the attempts to controllanguage are generally in vain. The common example used by Saussurewas the case of Volapuk, a language created by a German priest tobring international unity and peace which declined within 10 yearsof considerable use. Thus, langue is distinguished from socialinstitutions like political institutions and legal code due to thisaspect of its nature. Langue is social in the sense that it isbased on conventions which populations foster and which allowsindividuals to communicate with one another. However, suchconventions are not rigid since they change and vary over time.“Particular langues as systems can be observed only in socialmilieu and at a given point in time.” (85)

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2During late-19th century, the idea that language is purely a socialinstitution was prevalent- the prime proponent of which was WilliamDwight Whitney (published ‘The Life and Growth of Language: AnOutline of Linguistic Science’ in 1875). Saussure expressed doubtsabout such an assertion. His ideas were also impacted by the debatebetween Emile Durkheim and Gabriel Tarde- prominent sociologists.Saussure felt that while language shared many features with socialinstitutions, it cannot be identified with it. Thus, he found thatlanguage could only be metaphorically identified as a socialinstitution. Though langue only exists in individual brains, thereis sufficient overlapping of these regions to make communicationpossible. From his own manuscripts and students’ writings, it seemsthat Saussure had a statistical view in mind when he said thatlangue was a social fact. The consideration of individual brainswill be the scientific evidence for reality of langue. Without theindividual brains as its locus in the social reality, langue wouldbecome a mere abstraction.

Saussure did not involve himself in the origin and history oflangue, like Whitney who believed that language was progressingtowards universal civilization. Saussure’s peripherizing of historyof langue is surprising taking into account the fact that he washimself a historical linguist. He believed that the question oforigin and history of langue would not bring us any closer tounderstanding its nature. The empirical base for generallinguistics would be constituted of the following two evidences:langue is a system which is embodied in the brain and langue is asocial fact. Saussure eliminated all aspects of empirical datawhich were ether accessory or accident to reach an abstraction oflangue which would mark the possibility of language andcommunication. He believed that language- here and now- was theonly empirical data that can be used to understand the nature oflangue.

PART 5- THE REALM OF PAROLE

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2Parole is a French word which can be relevantly translated as‘spoken word’ for our purpose. There are two broad ways ofunderstanding it: firstly, we can record and report someone’s lastwords while we can also say that the only thing that a dog lacks tobe fully human is faculty of language where ‘last words’ and‘faculty of language’ are translations of parole.

Parole is all that is not langue. It refers to those aspects oflanguage which have been marginalized in determining the essence oflanguage through notion of langue. Parole and langue are necessarycomplimentaries of each other. Parole and langue have theirrespective methods of investigation/of being studied. While generallinguistics would deal with langue, parole would be studied bysociology, neurophysiology, phonetics, literature, psychology,acoustic and history. He also expressed the need for a disciplinewhich would focus on parole alone. He defined parole as: “(a)everything that is to do with acoustic production; (b) everythingto do with combining elements, everything to do with human will.Duality: Parole= individual will. Langue: social passivity.”

What is the importance of parole? (Source: The Twofold Essence ofLanguage)

Parole is the source of all that is in langue. It is the rootof all change that occurs in langue with time.

It is through parole that meaningful strings of words ariseephemerally. This marks the role of parole as Saussure’sempirical data keeping in mind that Saussure saw spokenlanguage to be the only valid object of investigation forlinguistics.

Two types of parole:

Actualized paroleConstitutes either of ‘the combination of elements containedin a segment of real speech’ (spoken word or phrase) or ‘the

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2

system within which elements are linked together by whatprecedes or follows them’ (complete sentence or discourse)(this is also called syntagma- ‘what is ordered side by side)

Potential parole“a group of elements created and associated in the mind, orthe system within which an element has an abstract existenceamong other potential elements’.

Every element of language is bound by two systems:

Langue Parole: Defined by what follows and precedes

Thus, language was seen as set of virtual relations where the valueof each potential element is determined in interconnectedness. Thiswas the langue from which the speaking subject gets resources toproduce instances of parole.

CHAPTER 6

SIGN, SIGNIFICATION, SEMIOLOGY

PART 1- WHAT IS A LINGUISTIC SIGN?

Linguistic signs are the building blocks we use to communicate ourthoughts. They are the meaningful units we put together in oursentences- not the elementary sounds or the syllables whichconstitutes the flow of our speech. They are morphological, in thesense that, if they are broken down any further, then they willcease to be meaningful.

Example of linguistic sign: ‘My bull runs very fast’- Here, ‘my’,‘bull’, ‘runs’ ‘-s’, ‘very’ and ‘fast’ are the linguistic signswhich have come together to form a meaningful sentence. These signscan be replaced by other ones to form another meaningful sentence.In this sentence, the ‘-s’ is added to the verb (third personpresent singular). Consider- “Your bulls only eat hay.”- Here, ‘-s’

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2is added to the noun (plural). Thus, depending on the place towhich it is added- ‘-s’ can result in different possible meanings.

According to Saussure, a linguistic sign refers to the associationbetween an acoustic image and an idea or concept. Here, acousticimage refers to the sound pattern while the idea/concept refers tothe meaning or signification. For instance, in using the sign‘friend’, you are referring to a particular type of socialrelationship. The association of acoustic image and idea/concept ismarked by three characteristics:

The association between the acoustic image and idea is soclose that they cannot be disassociated and this union ispsychological or mental in nature;

This association is arbitrary in nature- it is a socialconvention.

A linguistic sign has no meaning by itself. Signs are notisolated units whose meanings would be determined by positiverelation between the acoustic image and concept- that is, themeaning of ‘friend’ is not based on some relationship betweenthe speech pattern of friend and the concept. Moreover, thesigns signify through their differences with each other. Theyform system of differential values.

PART 2- THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN

2.1. The Two Sides of the Linguistic Sign

Refuting common view of acoustic image-concept as parallel to form-meaning: The common philosophical view is that the relationshipbetween acoustic image and concept is analogous to the relationbetween form and meaning. There is supposed to be an autonomousthought that is expressed under various forms. However, Saussurerefutes by saying that linguistic forms cannot be consideredindependent of their meaning. In studying linguistics, we aredealing with morphology- that is, forms which belong to a language

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2system like ‘friend’, ‘speak’ and others and not to sound patternslike ‘fr’, ‘lan’ and ‘ges’. Saussure insisted that the relationshipbetween acoustic image and concept is mental or psychological suchthat it is located in the brain. He uses the experiments of PaulBroca, a physician and anatomist who showed that the loss oflanguage is related to the damage to particular cerebral region inaphasic patients. Saussure said that all linguistic forms have ameaning and all linguistic meanings have a form.

Intimate association between acoustic image and the concept:Acoustic image does not refer to the physical sound itself but thepsychological or mental representation which are associated closelywith the distinct concepts. The acoustic image and concept are therecto and verso of a sheet of paper. This view is backed by theevidence provided by inner speech, commonly called thinking, wherethe thinking itself cannot be disassociated from the acoustic imagein which the thoughts are case. Thinking cannot be disassociatedfrom the system of our language. The language we use provides uswith ways to categorize our experience of self and world. Thelanguage “casts a net on the structure of our phenomenologicalreality” (93).

Analogies to relation between acoustic image-concept:

Signified and signifier: There are two nouns derivable fromthe French verb ‘signifier’ (to signify): signifiant(signifying) and signife (signified). Conventionally, the‘signifying’ is considered to be the active part while‘signified’ is considered the passive part of the process.However, such a conventional association does not reflect theintimate association that Saussure attributed to the relationbetween acoustic image and concept.

Body and soul of Christian theology: Towards the end of hiscourse on general linguistics, Saussure uses the relationbetween body and soul of Christian theology to talk about therelation between the acoustic image and the concept. However,

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by this analogy, the phonetic body would have to be consideredas consisting of functional organs which- even when dead(disassociated from the soul) would have the capacity of beingidentified. However, in case of acoustic image and concept,when the sound elements of an acoustic image are consideredindependently of their meaning (concept), they do not act likefunctional organs. For instance, consider ‘guinea’ and ‘pig’-it is clear that each added sound (+g, +u and so on) or groupof sounds do not act like functional organs: “g+u+i+n+e+a” and“p+i+g”.

2.2. The Arbitrariness of the Linguistic Sign

The principal mark of Saussure’s science of language was theprinciple of arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. The words in alanguage have the meaning they have because the people who speakthe language implicitly agree on the association between theacoustic image and the concept. For instance, an English speakeracquires a series of associations- like ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ as asocial convention inherited when she learns the native language orwhen she acquires it as a secondary language. ‘Friend’ and ‘enemy’are the two opposite qualities which other people can have withrespect to the well-being of the self. When she travels to Hungaryor Indonesia, it will not be possible for her to guess which soundpatterns correspond to the acoustic image associated with theconcept of ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ because there is no natural linkbetween the quality of being a friend/enemy and the sound pattern.

The principle of arbitrariness explains why there is no absolutecorrespondence between the words of different languages. Forinstance, English makes a distinction between ‘sheep’ and ‘mutton’as the animal grazing in the field and served on the tablerespectively. But in French, there is only one word ‘mouton’ forboth cases. If the objects that form of words signify-friend/enemy- had objective properties and these properties

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2determined the forms of the words, then all languages would besimilar. However, this is not the case.

Non-motivated association: The social mass is the ultimate sourcefrom which we derive our associations. There is no particularagency which is deliberately enforcing these associations. When weuse the term ‘arbitrary’, it might give the impression that freewill being asserted. This is generally the inference in philosophyof science and theory. In using the notion of non-motivatedassociation, Saussure wanted to point out that the associationbetween acoustic images and concepts results from chance factors.Thus, one cannot create or redefine words at will. The appearanceof new words in a language results from emergence of an unconsciousconsensus. This is paradoxical as no one is aware of the changesthat take place but eventually, everyone accepts it (Gen-Y, Gen-X,selfies).

Motivated-associations: There are degrees of motivations from thecomplete lack of it to relative degrees of it. In our use of ‘n’,‘ism’ or ‘-er’, we are motivated to use them as a sign of negationand agency respectively. These become the factor of motivation forcreation of other words within the language of which they form apart.

2.3. Value and Signification

Generally, speakers of a language tend to assume that every wordhas a meaning- that is- there is a one-to-one positive relation ofword with its meaning. The dictionary becomes a model forrepresenting the language. However, in learning a second language,it is realized that there is not always one-to-one correspondencebetween the words of two languages- ‘sheep’ and ‘mutton’ of Englishto ‘mouton’ of French- because the two words do not have the samevalue in the two different languages.

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2Language is not a collection of words where each word has a meaningindependent of the rest. Language, on the other hand, is a vastnetwork of differences where the value of each word is determinedby the other words. Each term has a differential and reciprocalvalue within the language system- as a sound pattern and a concept.

Saussure compares language to a game of chess to talk about theformer’s true nature. The pieces are defined according to theirrelation to a structured space and to each other. The value of eachcategory of the pieces is determined by opposition to all the othercategories with regard to the degree and direction of mobilityaccording to arbitrary rules. Thus, the whole system is a set ofrelation between relations.

PART 3- CONCEPTION AND REPRESENTATION OF LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM

Saussure talks about the nature of language in his text- ‘TheTwofold Essence of Language’ (written between 1891 and 1911). Inusing the term ‘two’, he is referring to the complexity than theduality of language.

There can be no one point of entry into unfolding and laying downlanguage as a system (a langue) because the object is alwayscreated from a point of view and there can always be multiplepoints of view. The only entry was the language being used at themoment which fulfils its communicative and expressive functions.But Saussure’s main idea was to produce a formal representationwhich went beyond the intuitive theoretical ideas. He believed thatin the end, the formal language of science would turn out to be asimple mathematical formula. Saussure believed that only algebracould act as an adequate tool to represent the multidimensionalabstract relations which comprises complexity of a system likelanguage.

The ‘ultimate quaternion’ was the closest Saussure came to offeringa formal system of language. The term ‘quaternion’ arises from the

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2Latin quaternus (quadruple). This was coined by the Irishmathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 to performcalculations involving 3-dimensional space. According to Saussure,a semiological system must have at least four terms, since a signcannot be conceived in the absence of another sign and asignification cannot be conceived in absence of at least anothersignification. Language could be formally expressed as a set offour irreducible terms and three irreducible relations betweenthese terms. He also talks about the relation between idea andform- how the relationship of idea to form is not identical to therelationship of form to idea.

PART 4- FROM LINGUISTICS TO SEMIOLOGY

Semiology is derived from two Greek terms- ‘semeion’ (sign) and‘logos’ (science). It is considered science of pathologicalsymptoms and system of maritime signals.

Saussure extensively uses the system of maritime signals to talkabout the system of language. A collection of clothes lay in theship- they are meaningless heap of rags. Some are selected and hungin a certain pattern- this acquires the status of being a signal.The meaning of this selection depends on all the other possiblesignals that this particular configuration is not. This essentialproperty of language- differential valuation- was also extendableto other systems based on social conventions like etiquette,maritime signaling and so on. It was found in brain studies thateven though the ability for spoken language was damaged in somepatients, they could write- this showed that linguistic signs arenot exclusively verbal. There must be a higher level in the brainwhich makes such a functioning of signs possible without theacoustic medium. Thus, spoken language is only one of the manypossible systems.

CHAPTER 7

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2SYNCHRONY AND DIACHRONY

When we consider a language from the synchrony point of view, weobserve it as it is at the moment when we study it. But we can alsoexamine a language from the diachrony point of view by researchingits history, that is, tracing back the various changes it hasundergone during the past centuries or even millennia. These twotechnical terms used by Saussure can be understood in plain Englishas meaning coexistent (synchronic) and successive (diachronic).According to Saussure, the synchronic point of view bears upon alangue, that is, a system within which the value of each term isdetermined by the other terms that are parts of it. It is thesystem of linguistics signs that makes possible linguisticcommunication at the present moment. Thus, a plane on which wecould represent all the coexistent relations that constitute alangue would be an adequate figure for expressing the synchronicpoint of view

If we want to examine a language from a diachronic point of view,we need to look at ancient texts that provide indirect informationabout the way people were communicating in earlier times. We knowthat languages change over time if we try to read texts that werewritten a few centuries ago. Even during our lifetime, we are awarethat new words and new ways of speaking pop up as time goes, whileother ones become old fashioned and even disappear. This isparticularly obvious to younger people when they interact witholder generations.

Language is both a static and a dynamic phenomenon, depending onthe point of view we take. We can switch back and forth from one tothe other, but we have to choose only one point of view if we wantto engage in a scientific endeavour. It does not make sense to mixthe two because conflating the two points of view generatesconfusion and construes a fallacious object that exists only forthe philologist and does not serve any communicative function.Since language is a succession of states, we have to look at it

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2either as a state that can be described at a given time, or as ahistory that can be retraced through the examination of thesuccessive states to which we have access in lineages of ancienttexts as they appear in the historical record.

2.1 status and motus

Status and motus are nominal forms corresponding respectively tothe verbs meaning “to stand” and “to move.” They contrast stabilityand movement, or the notions of static and dynamic. Status isdefined by Saussure as “a reciprocal state of the terms” thatresults from a new event. Motus refers to the events, the constantchanges, that occur in languages in the course of time.

In his opinion, only the reciprocal relations that constitute alangue at a given point in time can be formally studied as asystem. The best analogy he can think of is the game of chess: whatcounts at any given time during a game is the present situation,not the moves that have led to this situation. Saussure considersthat it matters little when we communicate through our language toknow how the particular vocal patterns we use to convey variousideas have evolved until the time when we use them.

2.2 phonetics and morphology

In Saussure’s time, phonetics was the discipline that studied thehistory of phonetic changes in the frame- work of comparativelinguistics and it applied almost exclusively to Indo-Europeanlanguages. Saussure usually refers to the sounds of language as“vocal configurations.” A vocal configuration is not necessarily alinguistic phenomenon. We can articulate all sorts of sounds. Inaddition, there is not much difference between vocal configurationsthat are produced deliberately as nonsensical sequences ofsyllables and words that are uttered in a language we do not know.Both certainly can be studied by phonetics as they are physical and

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2physiological phenomena. They have articulatory and acousticproperties.

Historical phonetics studies the way in which vocal configurationsare coded in the various scripts from the past that have survived.Comparative linguistics developed methods that allow us to inferplausible sounds from their written form and to retrace thesuccessive changes they document over centuries and millennia. Somehypotheses can be formulated about the reasons for such changes.However, he came to realize later that, in spite of the interestand validity of such endeavors, they did not address the essentialpart of language. They were focused on the diachrony and, as such,they were irrelevant to what Saussure considered the true nature oflanguage.

Saussure opposed “phonetics” to “morphology” for the same reasonshe opposed diachrony to synchrony and motus to status. Morphologyis coined after the ancient Greek word morphe, which means form.Morphology is the science of forms in general but it has received atechnical meaning in linguistics. It applies to the set of formsthat have a meaning or a function in a language. This includes notonly the words of this language but also the parts of words that insome languages indicate a grammatical function, such as in Englishthe ending “ed” that signals the past tense, or the use ofgrammatical words like “have” and “will” to situate an action withrespect to the present. Saussure criticized the usual distinctionthat was made by his contemporaries between “form” and “sense” torefer to elements of a language. For him, the two domains could notbe separated because a form alone could not be part of a languageand there was no meaning that could be apprehended without a form.

Phonetics could study forms. But the constituents of a langue werelinguistic signs, that is, the indissociable union of an acousticimage and a concept. This was for him the exclusive domain ofmorphology. The system of a langue is accessible through itsmorphology alone. This led Saussure to go as far as dissociating

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2linguistics from phonetics for the same reasons that he set apartsynchrony (the static point of view or status) and diachrony (thedynamic point of view or motus).

3) Why and how do language change?

it was obvious to him that changes in language lacked consistencyand involved many heterogeneous causes. They could be documentedand described but they remained somewhat erratic and anecdotal.Saussure considered that these variegated phenomena could not beexplained by a single all-encompassing theory. This led him todeclare that language was fundamentally irrational in the sensethat it was impossible to predict the ways in which languageschange.

The kinds of changes that are observed can nevertheless beenumerated. Let us consider the two main sources of changes as theywere described by Saussure.

3.1 Phonetic changes

Phonetic changes depend on the physiological and physical aspectsof speech. Languages are always transmitted verbally fromgeneration to generation. This is a continuum that is coextensivewith the history of humankind ever since language emerged as aproperty of the species. There cannot be any gaps in thetransmission since speaking a language presupposes that one hasreceived it from the social group within which she or he was born.

Saussure alluded at times to the “tyranny of writing,” meaning bythis that writing was a conservative force that slowed down theconstant modifications naturally occurring in spoken languages.There are however always marked differences between the spoken andwritten forms of a language. A case in point is a phenomenon called“rhotacism,” a word coined after “RHO” the name of the letter R inthe Greek alphabet. It refers today to what is considered a speechdefect: the inability to clearly articulate the sound “R” in words

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2such as “more” and to replace it by “W.” But a phenomenon that isconsidered to be a speech defect with respect to a norm supportedby spelling can also be understood as a phonetic change that isaccepted by large portions among the populations of native speakersof English.

The general principle to keep in mind is that changes such as R>Wor S>Z>R occur naturally and spontaneously without the speakersbeing aware of, let alone intending those, changes. Such changes inspeech are progressive and hardly noticeable at first, but theyeventually become compounded and give rise, after a long period oftime, to new languages. Although there were some local evidences ofdirectionality in these phonetic changes, attempts to discerngeneral laws had not been successful during Saussure’s lifetime anda theory of phonetic evolution remained an elusive goal. This iswhy he considered that phonetics was a purely historical endeavorthat could record successive events but could not fully explainthem in terms of a scientific theory. From this point of viewSaussure characterized language as being irrational. It isdifficult to account for phonetic changes. Saussure mentionedseveral causes that had been pro- posed, such as the principle oflesser effort that led speakers to save their muscular energy spentfor articulating sounds, the climate and environment that mayimpact upon the physiological state of the speakers, the anatomicpredispositions of the diverse races, the social conditions thatmay put different articulatory constraints on groups, for instance,whether some should speak softly and other forcefully, the way inwhich the phonetic education of children is conducted, theinfluence of other languages with which a population may come incontact through trade or conquest, and the spread of fashionsbearing upon the pronunciation of words and the intonation ofsentences. All these plausible circumstances formed a heterogeneousset of physical and social forces to which speakers were submitted.

3.2 Analogical changes.

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2An analogical change occurs when a feature that exists in a word orgroup of words is transferred to other words or group of words.This kind of contagion is usually prompted because there arealready other similarities, even superficial ones, between the two.Saussure considered that these sorts of changes were lessunconscious than the phonetic changes. Even though it could not beclaimed that they are fully deliberate, the speakers can be awareof the ground for the analogy. They certainly appear to be morereasonable than purely accidental changes, but this does not meanthat they are consistently logical. Saussure took as an example ofthis phenomenon the odd plural form “feet” in English and retracedits analogical extension to plural words like “geese” and “teeth.”

4) Relation between Synchrony and Diachrony

these two points of view are, according to Saussure, the basis oftwo different approaches to language. Nevertheless, they concernthe same global phenomenon. In this respect, they can be consideredas abstractions designed to construe two coherent domains ofinvestigation, each one with its own method. This is why we shouldnot look at them as totally separate entities, one pertaining tothe present use of linguistic communication, the other beingprojected in the deep past of languages. The consideration of alanguage as the system of relations that determines through acomplex network of differences the identities of its words andtheir meanings consists of looking at this language from thesynchronic point of view. When the synchronic point of view isconsidered as it applies to a particular language rather than ageneral notion, Saussure called it “idio-synchronic” from the Greekadjective idios, which means “particular.” The linguist strives toexpress a complete and coherent vision of this language as acomprehensive set of abstract relations. However, language can bedirectly observed only when it is used, that is, when a particularlanguage is being spoken, and, because it is a linear, sequentialphenomenon, it always occurs in time. From this point of view it is

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Continental PhilosophyStudy Resource-2necessarily diachronic. All language changes take place in theprocess of being spoken and it is the cumulative effects of thosechanges that eventually produce new systems, that is, newlanguages.

Therefore a langue is by necessity always a temporary phenomenon.Under various circumstances it may appear relatively stable. But,on the whole, the history of human languages show that newlanguages have continuously sprouted from older ones under thepressure of the numerous changes that occur whenever a language isused for communicating within a population.

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