11. intro to lang. saussure, structuralism

This lecture describes about Saussure's structuralism.

1. 11. Saussure Structuralism
Lecture No. 11
Zafar Ullah,
[email protected]

2. Definition of Structuralism
•Itisamethodofinterpretationand
analysisofaspectsofhumancognition,
behaviour,culture,andexperience,which
focusesonrelationshipsofcontrast
betweenelementsinaconceptual
system.
2

3. Characteristics of Structuralism
•Wholeness. This means that the system
functions as a whole, not just as a collection of
independent parts.
•Transformation. This means that the system is
not static, but capable of change. New units can
enter the system, but when they do they're
governed by the rules of the system.
•Self-Regulation. This is related to the idea of
transformation. You can add elements to the
system, but you can't change the basic structure
of the system no matter what you add to it. The
transformations of a system never lead to
anything outside the system.
3

4. Structuralism Example in Literature
•Three characters: princess, stepmother, and
prince a princess is persecuted by a stepmother
and rescued (and married) by a prince
Cinderella “ units” are:princess, stepmother, and
prince "rules" are: stepmothers are evil,
princesses are victims, and princes and
princesses have to marry.
•that's exactly what structuralist analyses of
literature are analyzing.
4

5. Biography of Saussure
•Born: Geneva, Switzerland 1857
•Graduate Work: University of Leipzig 1876
•Taught (11 years): • Sanskrit • Gothic • Old High
German
•Professor • Sanskrit • Indo-Eurpoean langauges •
Course of General Linguistics (1907-1911) at
University of Geneva 1891
•Doctorate in 1880: Dissertation on the Primitive
Vowel System in Indo-European Languages
5

6. 1. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 -
1913): Linguistic signs
•Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is widely
considered to be one of the forefathers of both
linguistics and semiology, which is the
philosophical study of the interpretation of signs
and symbols. Most notably, Saussure introduced
the idea that every word is alinguistic sign,which
consists of two components: thesignifier,or the
phonetic form of a word (e.g., the word “dog”
consists of two consonants split up by a vowel);
6

7. Cont…
•and thesignified,or the conceptual meaning
underlying the sign (e.g., a dog is a furry animal
that is commonly used as a household pet).
Crucially, Saussure articulated
thearbitrarinessof the linguistic sign: the
phonetic form and the underlying concept of the
word “dog” have no natural link, and instead are
the product of social interaction. The arbitrariness
of meaning and form is a fundamental tenet of
modern linguistics.
7

8. Key Concepts of Saussure
•Signifier, signified
•Semiolog
•Syntagmatic and
Paradigmatic
•Langue vs parole
8

9. COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUSITICS
(COURS DE LINGUISTIQUE GENERALE)
•A compilation of his lecture notes by Saussure’s
former students –Charles Bally and Albert
Sechehaye.
•Published at Lausanne and Paris in 1916.
9

10. Langue VS Parole
•Langue: A system, an institution, a set of
interpersonal rules and norms in speech and
writing.
•Elements include the system of grammar,
spellings, syntax and punctuation.
•Meaning is created in the arrangements of its
elements and the consequent relationships
between these arranged elements.
•Parole: An actual manifestation of langue.
•The concrete use of the language, the actual
utterances.
10

11. Cont…
•Although he spoke of a linguistics of parole that
would cover the phonetic side of language and
the products of individual will, Saussure made it
clear that the linguistics of langue is the
essential, real linguistic, beyond the reach of the
individual will (John E. Joseph, 1995).
11

12. Synchronic Linguistics VS
Diachronic Linguistics
•Synchronic linguistics -Confines to the study
of how a language is spoken by a specified
speech community at a particular point of time
•Diachronic linguistics -Diachronic linguistics is
the kind in which we study the historical
development of language through different
periods of time
12

13. Semiology
•The study of signs.
•A general science of signs
•To understand systematic regularities from which
meaning is derived.
•The network of linguistics signs which constitute
langue is made up of the conjunction of
•A signifier
•A signified
13

14. Signifier and Signified
•Signifier + Signified = Signs
•The sign is the whole that results from the
association of the signifier with the signified..
•The relationship between the signifier and the
signified is referred to as 'signification', and this is
represented in the Saussurean diagram by the
arrows.
14

15. Examples of Signifier, Signified
•A sign is a recognizable combination of a signifier
with a particular signified.
•For example, the word “Open” A signifier : the
word ‘Open’ A signified concept : the shop is
open for business.
15

16. Syntagm and Paradigm
•Syntagmatic and paradigmatic control
how sign relate to each other
•Syntagm-syntagmatic relationship is
when signs occur in sequenceand
operate together to form meaning.
•Paradigm-paradigmatic relationship is
where an individual signs can be replaced
by one another.
16

17. Cont…
•The horizontal items have syntagmatic
relationships as they follow on from one another.
•The vertical items have paradigmatic
relationships as in each column, items can be
substituted for one another.
17

18. Structuralism as a philosophical
stance
•Structuralists are interested in the
interrelationship between
• UNITS ( also called "surface phenomena," )
•RULES (the ways that units can be put together.
• In language: units are words and the rules
which are the forms of grammarwhich order
words. In different languages, the grammar rules
are different, as are the words, but the structure
is still the same in all languages: words are put
together within a grammatical system to make
meaning.
18

19. Rules of Structuralism
•Structuralistsbelievethattheunderlying
structureswhichorganizeunitsandrulesinto
meaningfulsystemsaregeneratedbythehuman
minditself,andnotbysenseperception.
•Assuch,themindisitselfastructuring
mechanismwhichlooksthroughunitsandfiles
themaccordingtorules.
•Sostructuralismseesitselfasascienceof
humankind,andworkstouncoverallthe
structuresthatunderlieallthethingsthathumans
do,think,perceiveandfeel.
19

20. Universal Systems of Structuralism
•Every human mind in every culture at every point
in history has used some sort of structuring
principleto organize and understand cultural
phenomena.
•Every human culture has some sort of language,
which has the basic structure of all language:
words/ phonemes are combined according to a
grammar of rules to produce meaning.
•Every human culture similarly has some sort of
social organization
•All of these organizations are governed,
according to structuralist analyses, by structures
which are universal.
20

21. Saussure’s Structuralism
•the systematic nature of language, where the
whole is greater than the sum of its parts
•the relational conception of the elements of
language, where linguistic "entities" are defined
in relationships of combination and contrast to
one another
•the arbitrary nature of linguistic elements, where
they are defined in terms of the function and
purpose they serve rather than in terms of their
inherent qualities
21

22. 22