Ferdinand de Saussure made seminal contributions to linguistics through his book Course in General Linguistics, which was compiled from his lecture notes by students after his death. He distinguished between synchronic and diachronic linguistics, langue and parole, and introduced key concepts like the signifier/signified relationship in signs, and syntagm and paradigm relations between signs. Saussure established linguistics as a formal science and laid the foundations for 20th century linguistic theory.

1. Describe Saussure’s
Contribution to Linguistics
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2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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.
 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).

5. 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

6. 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.

7.  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

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

9.  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.

10. References
 E. F. K. Koerner; R.E. Asher (ed.) 1995. Concise
History of the Language Sciences from the
Sumerians to the Cognitivists. UK, Cambridge
University Press.
 http://changingminds.org/explanations/critical_th
eory/theorists/saussure.htm