Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wbk2r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-08T07:54:33.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

French Influences on Saussure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Konrad Koerner
Konrad Koerner*
Affiliation:
University of Ottawa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

0.1 For some ten years now, it has been my claim that it was through linguistic writings of his time, and not through extra-linguistic publications, that Saussure’s views took shape. This is not to say that there was no influence on him from disciplines other than linguistics, but this kind of influence was due to what I have termed the “climate of opinion” of the period, and it remained largely at the surface of things, certain frequently reiterated claims of a strong impact of Durkheim’s sociology, Tarde’s as well as Walras’ political economy, etc. notwithstanding (cf. Rijlaarsdam 1978: 260-64; Bierbach 1978 passim). Saussure’s acquaintance with disciplines outside linguistics, I maintain, was at best second-hand and remained superficial. This is not only true of the psychologism underlying his theoretical argument, a psychologism found elsewhere in the linguistic literature (e.g., Paul 1880, 1909; Baudouin de Courtenay 1894), but also of his sociologism, his repeated statement that language was a “fait social”. In short, if we want to place Saussure’s theory of language-and of linguistics for that matter-in an epistemological context, we would do better by acquainting ourselves with the linguistic literature of his day rather than deducing from certain superficial similarities and terminological borrowings a direct influence of a field outside the study of language on Saussure’s linguistic reasoning. (We should remember that Saussure never wrote a book on general linguistics, but that he was trying, through comparisons, metaphors, and references to what was general knowledge of his day, to convey his largely novel ideas to twenty-year-old students.)

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Spring 1984 , pp. 20 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aarsleff, Hans 1982 From Locke to Saussure: Essays on the study of language and intellectual history. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Adam, Lucien 1881 Les patois lorrains. Paris: A. Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Angenot, Marc 1971 Condillac et le Cours de linguistique générale. Dialectica 25:119–30.Google Scholar
Auroux, Sylvain 1973 L’Encyclopédie: “Grammaire” et “langue” au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Maison Mame.Google Scholar
Courtenay, Baudouin de, Jan 1895 Versuch einer Theorie phonetischer Alternationen: Ein Capitel aus der Psychophonetik. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benveniste, Emile, ed. 1964 Lettres de Ferdinand de Saussure à Antoine Meillet. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 21:93–123.Google Scholar
Bierbach, Christine 1978 Sprache als “Fait social”: Die linguistische Theorie F. de Saussures und ihr Verhāltnis zu den positivistischen Sozialwissenschaften. Tübingen: M. Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolelli, Tristano 1979 La scuola linguistica sociologica francese. Studi e Saggi Linguistics (Pisa) 19:1– 26.Google Scholar
Bopp, François [Franz] 1866-72 Grammaire comparée des langues indo-européennes. Trans, from the 2nd German ed., with an introduction by Michel Bréal. 4 vols. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Bréal, Michel 1868 Let idées latentes du langage: Leçon faite au Collège de France. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Bréal, Michel 1883 Les lois intellectuelles du langage: Fragment de sémantique. Annuaire de l’Association pour l’encouragement det étudet grecques en France 17:132–42.Google Scholar
Bréal, Michel 1897 Essai de sémantique: Science des significations. Paris: Hachette. (6th ed. 1913.)Google Scholar
Brogyanyi, Bela 1983 A few remarks on the origin of the phrase ‘où tout se tient’. Bittoriographia Linguistica 10:1/2 143–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio 1977 Tradición y novedad en la ciencia de lenguaje. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Doroszewski, Witold 1933 Sociologie et linguistique: Durkheim et de Saussure. Actes du Deuxième Congrès international de Linguistes (Genève, 25-29 1931), 146–47. Paris: A. Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Doroszewski, Witold 1933 Quelques remarques sur les rapports de la sociologie et la linguistique: Durkheim et F. de Saussure. Journal de Psychologie normale et pathologique 30:82–91. (Repr. in Essais sur le langage, presented by Pariente, Jean-Claude, pp. 99–109. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1969.)Google Scholar
Engler, Rudolf 1976 Saussure und die Romanistik. [=Arbeitspapiere, 16). Bern: Institut für Sprach-wissenschaft, Universität Bern.Google Scholar
Engler, Rudolf 1980 Linguistique 1908: Un débat-clef de linguistique géographique et une question de sources saussuriennes. Progress in Linguistic Historiography: Papers from the International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (Ottavia, 28-31 August 1978), ed. by Koerner, Konrad, pp. 257–70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, John Rupert 1957 Papers in Linguistics 1934-1951. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gambarara, Danièle 1972 La bibliothèque de Ferdinand de Saussure. Genava n.3. 20:319–68.Google Scholar
Gauchat, Louis 1904 Gibt es Mundartgrenzen? Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 111:365–403.Google Scholar
Gauchat, Louis 1905 L’unité phonétique dans le patois d’une commune. Aus romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen: Festschrift für Heinrich Morf, pp. 175–232. Halle/S.: M. Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Gilliéron, Jules, with the collab. of Edmond Edmont 1902. Atlas linguistique de la France. Paris: E. Champion. 10 Google Scholar
Godel, Robert 1957 Les Sources manuscrites du Cours de linguistique générale de F. de Saussure. Geneva: Droz. (2nd printing, 1969.)Google Scholar
Iordan, Iorgu [and John Orr] 1937 An Introduction to Romance Linguistics, its Schools and Scholars. Rev., trans. and in parts recast by Orr, John. London: Methuen & Co. (New ed., with a supplement by Rebecca Posner, B. Blackwell: Oxford. 1970.)Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman 1971 Première lettre de F. de Saussure à A. Meillet sur les anagrammes. L‘Homme: Revue française d’anthropologie 11:2.15–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1972a Hermann Paul and Synchronic Linguistics. Lingua 29:274–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F.Konrad 1972b Jan Baudouin de Courtenay: His place in the history of linguistic science. Canadian Slavonic Papers 14:663–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1973 Ferdinand de Saussure: Origin and development of his linguistic theory in western studies of language. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1976 Saussure and the French Linguistic Tradition: A few critical comments. In Memoriam Friedrich Diez: Akten des Kolloquiums zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Romanistik (Trier, 2.-4. Okt. 1975), ed. by Niederehe, Hans-Josef et al., pp. 405–417. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1977 The Humboldtian Trend in Linguistics. Studies in Descriptive and Historical Linguistics: Festschrift for Winfred P. Lehmann, ed. by Hopper, Paul J., pp. 145–58. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1978 Toward a Historiography of Linguistics: Selected Essays. Foreword by Robins, R. H.. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1980 Sur l’origine du concept et du terme de ‘synchronique’ en linguistique. Recherches de linguistique: Hommages à Maurice Leroy, ed. by Bingen, Jean et al., pp. 100–109. Brussels: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Koerner, E. F. Konrad 1982 Quelques observations au sujet des sources de la sémiologie saussurienne. History of Semiotics, ed. by Trabant, Jürgen and Eschbach, Achim, 323–39. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1893 Les lois du langage. I: Lois phonétiques. Revue internationale de Sociologie (Paris) 1:311–21.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1901 Review of Wilhelm Wundt, Vōlkerpsychologie, Tome I: Die Sprache, 2 vols. (1900, Leipzig: W. Engelmann). Année sociologique 5:595–601.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1903 Introduction à l’étude comparative des langues indo-européennes. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1906a Comment les mots changent de sens. Année sociologique 9:1–38.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1906b L’état actuel des études de linguistique générale: Leçon d’ouverture du cours de Grammaire comparée au Collège de France lue le mardi 13 février 1906. Revue det idées: Etudes de critique générale (Paris) 3:296–308.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1921 Linguistique historique et linguistique générale. [Tome I]. Paris: E. Champion.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1931 [Comment on W. Doroszewski’s paper (see above)]. Actes du Deuxième Congrès international des Linguistes, p. 147. Paris: A. Maisonneuve.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine 1936 Linguistique historique et linguistique générale. [Tome II]. Paris: E. Champion. (Repr. 1952.)Google Scholar
Mounin, Georges 1959 Une illusion d’optique en histoire de la linguistique. Travaux de l’Institut de Linguistique (Paris) 4:7–13.Google Scholar
Mounin, Georges 1966 La notion de système chez Antoine Meillet. La Linguistique 2:1:17–29.Google Scholar
Paris, Gaston 1881 Review of Adam (1881). Romania 10:601–609.Google Scholar
Paris, Gaston 1888 Les parlers de France: Lecture faite à la séance générale de clôture du Congrès des Sociétés savantes, le samedi 26 mai 1888. Revue des Patois galloromans 2:161–75.Google Scholar
Paul, Hermann 1880 Principien [from 3rd (1898) ed. onwards: Prinzipien] der Sprachgeschichte. Halle/S.: Max Niemeyer. (4th ed., 1909; 5th and last rev. ed., 1920.)Google Scholar
Redard, Georges 1976 Ferdinand de Saussure et Louis Havet. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 71:1:313–49.Google Scholar
Rijlaarsdam, Jetske C. 1978 Platon über die Sprache: Ein Kommentar zum Kratylos. Mit einem Anhang über die Quelle der Zeichentheorie Ferdinand de Saussures. Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de 1878 Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1879. (Repr., Hildesheim: G. Olms, 1968.)Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de 1931 Cours de linguistique générale. Ed. by Bally, Charles and Sechehaye, Albert, with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger. 3rd corrected ed. Paris: Payot. (All subsequent editions, including Tullio De Maura’s edition critique of 1972, follow this text.)Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de 1957 Cours de linguistique générale (1908-1909): Introdution (d’après des notes d’étudiants). Ferdinand de Saussure 15:6–103. (Published by Robert Godel.)Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de 1968 Cours de Linguistique Générale. Critical ed. by Engler, Rudolf. Tome L Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de 1974 Court de linguistique générale. Tome II, fasc. 4: Notes de F. de Saussure sur la linguistique générale. Ibid.Google Scholar
Schleicher, August 1860-61 Compendium der vergleichenden Grammatik der indogermanischen Sprachen. 2 vols. Weimar: H. Böhlau. (4th ed., prepared by Leskien, August and Schmidt, Johannes, 1876.)Google Scholar
Szemerényi, Oswald 1980 About Unrewriting the History of Linguistics. Wege der Universalienforschung: Sprachwissenschaftliche Beitrãge zum 60. Geburtstag von Hansjakob Seiler, ed. by Brettschelder, Gunter and Lehmann, Christian, pp. 151–62. Tübingen: G. Narr.Google Scholar
Tell, Julien 1874 Les Grammairiens français, depuis l’origine de la grammaire en France jusqu’aux dernières oeuvres connues. Brussels: F. Callewaert. (Repr., Geneva: Slatkine, 1967.)Google Scholar
Wunderli, Peter 1972 Ferdinand de Saussure und die Anagramme: Lingustik und Literatur. Tübingen: M. Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar