SAUSSURE'S THEORY AND ITS EFECT

University Degree Education and Teaching

Assignment Title: Saussure’s theory and its effects

Saussure’s theory and its effects

In this essay, first, I will outline the main principle of Saussure’s theory of linguistics and explain what made him ‘the father of Modern Linguistic’. At that point, I would like to draw attention to Saussure's linguistic theory which gives a systematic picture of what is a language, what the elementary principles and units that make it an independent system are. Secondly, I will describe how conception of language simplifies the approach to learning/teaching as a foreign language and how it strengthens an analytic method of studying.

At the beginning of the twentieth century Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) became unsatisfied with the way, linguistics was studied. He thought that historical linguistics; that analysed language across the time, and comparative Linguistics; that studied differences and similarities among languages, were not focusing on the real nature of language. Therefore, he has brought a new approach to the science of language parallel to his contemporaries Emil Durkheim in sociology and Sigmund Freud in psychology.

As Saussure refused to accept the theory of language itself as a reflection of thought, he believed in the autonomy of language and was not happy with any nomenclature; the linguistic- philosophical theory that considered language as naming process. He created a science with a clear aim to allow a complete and applicable knowledge of language itself. His example of methodology, which is called structuralism, has been applied to the human sciences. This approach of Saussure made linguists to believe that he is the founder of modern linguistic.

This is a preview of the whole essay

“For Saussure the linguist’s task was to analyse a language as a system of units and relations; to do linguistics was to attempt to define the units of a language, the relations between them, and their rules of combinations”. His theory begins with the idea of “language is a system of signs “(Culler, p.19)”. The linguistic sign has two components: signifier that refers sound image and signified that refers a concept. One of the most important sides of the theory is that the relation between the ‘signifier’ and the ‘signified’ is arbitrary. There is no logical link between signifier and signified. However, it does not mean that they are autonomous entities. On the contrary, “they are members of a system and are defined by their relations to other members of that system”. For example, meaning of summit will require us to compare its meaning with hill or a similar expression of same kind to demonstrate difference between the heights.

This side of Saussure’s theory has huge influence to language as it is taught / studied as a foreign language. As we know that the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary, part of a system and related to each other, we can have some hint for teaching and studying language as a foreign language. This shows the importance of repetition in learning process and building up vocabulary especially if one teaches/learns a foreign language. In that sense, we should look at Culler’s example on that point.

Explaining Saussure’s theory of language, Culler gives the example of teaching process of colour terms in English to person of a non-European culture. “So we begin by showing him brown objects and telling him that they are brown. Since we want to be thorough, we have assembled a collection of a hundred brown objects of various kinds. Then, after having bored him and ourselves for several hours, we take him into another room and, to test his knowledge of ‘brown’, ask him to pick up all brown objects. He sets to work but seems to be having difficulty deciding what to select, so in despair we decide we haven’t been thorough enough and propose to start again the next day with five hundred brown object” (Culler p.25). The main point of this example is that without something to contrast ‘brown’ with the student will not know what is brown whether it is the colour of object that is being labelled.

Some teaching methods make a foreign language hard for students to learn. Especially when these teaching methods are not accompanied by some teaching techniques, this makes foreign language unreachable for the learner.

However, thanks to Saussure’s theory if students/teacher of foreign language realises the importance of the sign, then they will achieve the knowledge of arbitrary relation between signifier; pronunciation and signified; concept. This knowledge will bring the importance of some teaching techniques to get attention of the students/teacher. For example; in order to ease arbitrary relation between signifier and signified, videos can be used in teaching/ studying. This will bring the fact that signs are related to each other within a system. For example, a video about vehicles on a busy road can teach the students the concept, meaning and relation of bus, car, motorcycle, lorry etc in the system. This also reminds us syntagmatic and paradigmatic explanation of Saussure’s theory.

“The signs in the language system are related to each other in two ways: there are rules for their combination, and there are contract and similarities between them… on the syntagmatic axis, words are linked, or chained, together according to grammatical rules, but we make choices about which words to link together on the paradigmatic axis, the axis of choice”. By having the knowledge of that fact students of foreign language start to think that grammatical rules is one of the important point that they should concentrate on in order to improve the language.

The social aspect of language is another important side of Saussure’s theory that contributes to teaching/studying a foreign language. Since, language is a social phenomenon, use of a foreign language in a community of speakers of the same language can also be considered as a very efficient method of learning.

Saussure’s analysis of language has two perspectives; synchronic, -which studies language in a defined and particular moment- and diachronic, -which follows the language overtime, pointing out the changes. He preferred to limit the analysis of language to a synchronic perspective in which the basic concept is sign and it gets an original and functional identity. According to this theory sign is anything that tells us something beyond itself, e.g. four-time whistle by a referee announces the end of a football mach even if it is only a whistle.

One of the strong sides of Saussure’s linguistic theory is distinction between langue and parole. Langue concerns with the units and the rules of combinations that linguistic system was made up. On the other hand, parole looks at descriptions of speech acts. In this sense, Saussure’s concentrated to langue instead of parole. ‘Ultimately, langue has to be related to actual usages of individuals, for it has no reality apart from its validity as a reflector the system underlying acceptable usage, which a community manifests in its everyday speech. And this leads collective Saussuran concept of parole, the actual, concrete act of speaking on the part of an individual…’

As we have seen although, Saussure’s theory of language is complex issue we can have some practical ideas for teaching/studying foreign language. Saussure’s point of view about languistic contributes many aspects of language learning and teaching, and his ideas affected modern linguistics. In this sense, Saussure reasonable earned his place as a founder of modern linguistics.