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Ferdinand de Saussure

From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008

Ferdinand de Saussure , 1857-1913, Swiss linguist. One of the founders of modern linguistics , he established the structural study of language, emphasizing the arbitrary relationship of the linguistic sign to that which it signifies. Saussure distinguished synchronic linguistics (studying language at a given moment) from diachronic linguistics (studying the changing state of a language over time); he further opposed what he named langue (the state of a language at a certain time) to parole (the speech of an individual). Saussure's most influential work is the Course in General Linguistics (1916), a compilation of notes on his lectures.

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