SAUSSURES

CONTRIBUTIONS TO
LINGUISTIC
PREPARED BY: EZZREEN, EDRINA & ADRIAN BOO
PRESENTED BY: EDRINA & ADRIAN BOO

CONTRIBUTIONS
De Saussures contribution to modern linguistics was responsible for four key
directions in the study of language. He distinguished

1. between Synchrony and Diachrony

2. between langue and parole
3. between signified and signifier

4. between syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships

1. BETWEEN SYNCHRONY AND DIACHRONY

The distinction was one that comparative philologists had often confused, but
for Saussure landing, subsequently for linguistics it was essential
Synchronic Linguistic
The study of a language at a given point, either present or past
Sees language as a living whole, existing as a "state" at a particular point in
time

It is a descriptive linguistic that concerns with the state of a language at any

point in time, especially the present
Concerned with the logical and psychological relations that bind together coexisting terms and form a system in the collective mind of speakers

Diachronic linguistics
The study of language history and change.
This was the type of work that characterized most of Saussure's predecessors
because the crucial question about language, at least until the 19th century,
revolved around discovering the origin of language.
Deals with the evolution of a language through time, as a continually changing
medium-a never-ending succession of language states

Study relations that bind together successive terms not perceived by the
collective mind but substituted for each other without forming a system
This distinction is significant because synchronic analyses were either ignored
or overlooked in the past, and most importantly, the distinction drew
attention to the current structural properties of language as well as historical
dimensions.

2. BETWEEN LANGUE AND PAROLE

Envisaged language (human speech as a whole) to be composed of two
aspects, which are called langue (the language system) and parole (the act of
speaking)
Langue: the totality of a language, deducible from an examination of the
memories of all the language users.
Parole: comprises the actual manifestation of the system in speech and
writing & denotes the actual speech act of the individual

Langue

Parole

A language system shared by a community

of speakers
A social phenomenon

In the individual realization of that system

Potential

Actual

A static situation

A dynamic situation

A concept

A round image of that concept

A rule

A behavior

An individual phenomenon

The distinction between langue and parole also has important implications for other
disciplines as well
Separating what is social from what is individual

3. BETWEEN SIGNIFIED AND SIGNIFIER

To clarify the concept of a language system that had the most profound
influence on subsequent scholarship
Characterized signs as a relationship between concept and sound to use his
words signified and signifier
The relationship of signified to signifier a linguistic sign
The sign is the basic unit of communication
The linguistic sign is constituted by the structural relationship between the
concept (e.g., "house"---the signified) and the sound of the word "house"
(signifier).
A language is essentially composed of such structural relationships, and the
study of language is the study of the system of signs that express ideas.

4. BETWEEN SYNTAGMATIC AND

PARADIGMATIC RELATIONSHIPS
Syntagmatic relationship is the combinatorial or again relationship
For example, we can come tomorrow is a sentence because in this linear
arrangement of words
We' is correlated with can, 'can' with come and so on
This relationship is restricted to certain orders

"In the syntagm a term acquires its value because it stands in opposition to
everything that precedes or follows or to both (saussure 1959:123)

 Paradigmatic relationships are contrastive or choice relationships.

Words that have something in common are associated in the memory,
resulting in groups marked by diverse relations
For example, the English word learning is unconsciously call to mind a host
of other words-study, knowledge discipline etc
All these words are related in same way
This kind of relationship is called associative relationship

REFERENCES
http://allrfree.blogspot.com/2009/10/saussure-and-his-main-contributions.html