Ferdinand Saussure facts for kids

Ferdinand Saussure (1857-1913) was a very important person in the study of language (called linguistics) and how we understand meaning (called semiotics). Semiotics is about how we give meaning to things around us. It also looks at how we share that meaning with others.

Saussure's Life and Ideas

Ferdinand Saussure was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1857. In the 1870s, he studied old languages like Sanskrit, Latin, and Ancient Greek at the University of Geneva.

From 1876 to 1880, Saussure studied historical linguistics in Germany. He earned his doctorate degree in Leipzig in 1880. After that, he moved to Paris to become a professor. He taught there for 11 years.

In 1891, Saussure returned to Geneva and became a professor there. From 1907 to 1911, he gave a series of lectures about general linguistics. He died in 1913.

Three years after his death, in 1916, Saussure's students gathered their notes from his lectures. They published them in a famous book called Cours de linguistique générale. This means Course on General Linguistics.

How Language Changes: Diachrony and Synchrony

Saussure was a professor of historical linguistics. This field looks at how languages are connected and how they change over time. Studying language change over time is called diachrony.

However, Saussure was more interested in synchrony. This means looking at a language at one specific point in time. He studied the parts of a language as if they were not changing. Saussure wanted to understand the structure of a language without comparing it to other languages or focusing on its history.

Langue and Parole: Language System vs. Speech

Saussure explained that language has two different parts: langue and parole.

• Langue is the system or rules of a language. When you learn a language in school, you are learning its langue. This includes vocabulary words, grammar rules, and word order. It's like the blueprint of the language.
• Parole is how people actually speak the language. Often, people speak differently from how language is taught. We might make mistakes, use slang, or use funny phrases. All of this is part of parole.

Saussure was more interested in studying langue. He found parole harder to study because the way people speak changes all the time. By studying langue, Saussure could understand the basic structure of language.

Understanding Language and Signs

Saussure wanted to know how people communicate using language. In his book, he first explained what language is and how it works in speech.

What Makes Up Language?

Many things work together to create language.

• First, there's a link between the sounds we make and how we make them. The sounds of letters and words are called "acoustical impressions." The way we use our vocal cords, mouth, and tongue to make these sounds is "oral articulation." These two parts together form the "signifier." This is the actual word or sound we use.
• Second, there's a link between the "signifier" (the word/sound) and the meaning we give to it. This meaning is called the "signified." When a signifier and a signified combine, they make a "linguistic sign." Saussure also called this a "complex unit" of body and mind.
• Third, language happens when people start using these linguistic signs with each other. This conversation is what we call speech, or parole.

Saussure described language as our ability to show meaning using signs. These signs are the words themselves and how they sound when spoken. When we talk to someone, language is involved in understanding the meaning from the words we hear. This understanding is a mental process. Making the sounds and words is a physical process of speech. To study language, we focus on the mental process.

Language as a System

Language is studied separately from speech. It doesn't belong to just one person. It belongs to the whole community of people who use it. Everyone in the community knows the language. However, no single person can change the language system by themselves. Because language is a stable system, it can be studied scientifically. This is the main goal of linguistics.

Arbitrary Nature of Signs

Saussure also pointed out that most signs are "arbitrary." This means that a word and its sounds don't tell us anything about what the word means. For example, the word "dog" doesn't sound like a dog. The letters and sounds chosen for "dog" are not special.

Most words are chosen this way. Only a few words are different. For example, in the word "slap," the sounds of the letters are a bit like the noise you hear when you slap something. The arbitrary nature of most words allows us to create many, many words. If every letter had a single meaning, we could only make a small number of words.

See also

In Spanish: Ferdinand de Saussure para niños