Ferdinand de Saussure
Swiss linguist and semiotician who laid the foundation for 20th-century linguistics and semiotics.
Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, semiotician, and philosopher, lived from 1857 to 1913. His thinking underpinned major advances in linguistics and semiotics throughout the 1900s. He is regarded as a key founder of modern linguistics and, alongside Charles Sanders Peirce, one of the two principal founders of semiotics (which Saussure himself called semiology).
Translator Roy Harris noted that Saussure’s impact reached across the human sciences, especially linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. While his concepts have been expanded and critiqued, the structural framework he introduced still shapes how language is studied today. Linguist Leonard Bloomfield credited Saussure with providing “the theoretical basis for a science of human speech.”
Born in Geneva in 1857, Saussure was the son of Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure, a mineralogist, entomologist, and taxonomist. He showed exceptional intellectual ability by age fourteen. In autumn 1870, he entered the Institution Martine in Geneva, living with a classmate’s family. After graduating at the top of his class, he hoped to attend the Gymnase de Genève, but his father judged him too immature at fourteen and a half and sent him to the Collège de Genève instead. Saussure was unhappy, calling it a wasted year. During that time, he studied Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit, took various courses at the University of Geneva, and deliberately avoided general linguistics due to its poor reputation, instead studying comparative-historical linguistics with Privatdozent Louis Morel. He began graduate work at the University of Leipzig in October 1876.
At age 21, Saussure published *Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes*. He then spent a year at the University of Berlin studying Celtic with Heinrich Zimmer and Sanskrit with Hermann Oldenberg. Returning to Leipzig, he defended his doctoral dissertation *De l'emploi du génitif absolu en Sanscrit* in February 1880. He soon moved to the University of Paris, lecturing on Sanskrit, Gothic, Old High German, and other subjects.
Despite being one of the most quoted linguists, Saussure published very little in his lifetime, and even his few scientific articles have issues. His work on Lithuanian phonetics, for instance, largely drew from studies by Lithuanian researcher Friedrich Kurschat, whom he traveled with for two weeks in August 1880 and whose German books he had read. Saussure had studied basic Lithuanian grammar for one semester in Leipzig but could not speak the language, making him reliant on Kurschat.
He taught at the École pratique des hautes études for eleven years and was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. Offered a professorship in Geneva in 1892, he returned to Switzerland, lecturing on Sanskrit and Indo-European at the University of Geneva for the rest of his life. He began teaching the Course of General Linguistics in 1907, offering it three times until summer 1911. He died in 1913 in Vufflens-le-Château, Vaud. His brothers were linguist and Esperantist René de Saussure and scholar of ancient Chinese astronomy Léopold de Saussure. His son Raymond de Saussure was a psychiatrist and psychoanalytic theorist trained by Sigmund Freud.
Saussure attempted in the 1880s and 1890s to write a book on general linguistics. His Geneva lectures from 1907 to 1911 were collected and published posthumously by his pupils as the famous *Course in General Linguistics* in 1916. His lifetime publications included two monographs and a few dozen papers and notes, gathered in a 600-page volume in 1922. He left over a hundred notebooks on ancient poetics but published nothing on the subject; Jean Starobinski edited and presented material from them in the 1970s, with more published since. An unfinished essay discovered in 1996 appeared in *Writings in General Linguistics*, though most of that material had already appeared in Engler’s critical edition of the *Course* from 1967 and 1974. It is now clear that the *Course* owes much to its editors Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, making it difficult to trace details directly to Saussure or his manuscripts.
Saussure’s theoretical reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European vowel system, especially his theory of laryngeals (unattested at the time), were later confirmed after the decipherment of Hittite by linguists such as Émile Benveniste and Walter Couvreur.
- born
- 26 November 1857, Geneva
- died
- 22 February 1913, Vufflens-le-Château, Vaud, Switzerland
- field
- Linguistics, semiotics, philosophy
- nationality
- Swiss
- known_for
- Foundations of structural linguistics, theory of the linguistic sign, langue and parole, laryngeal theory
Lore & Background
Saussure was born in Geneva in 1857. His father, Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure, was a mineralogist, entomologist, and taxonomist. He showed signs of considerable talent and intellectual ability as early as the age of fourteen. In the autumn of 1870, he began attending the private school called the Institution Martine in Geneva. After graduating at the top of class, Saussure expected to continue his studies at the Gymnase de Genève, but his father sent him to the Collège de Genève instead. He spent the year studying Latin, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit, and attended a variety of courses at the University of Geneva. He began graduate work at the University of Leipzig and arrived there in October 1876. Two years later, at 21, Saussure published a book entitled Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes. After this, he studied for a year at the University of Berlin under the Privatdozent Heinrich Zimmer and Hermann Oldenberg. He returned to Leipzig to defend his doctoral dissertation De l'emploi du génitif absolu en Sanscrit, and was awarded his doctorate in February 1880. Soon, he relocated to the University of Paris, where he lectured on Sanskrit, Gothic, Old High German, and occasionally other subjects. Saussure taught at the École pratique des hautes études for eleven years during which he was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. When offered a professorship in Geneva in 1892, he returned to Switzerland. Saussure lectured on Sanskrit and Indo-European at the University of Geneva for the remainder of his life. It was not until 1907 that Saussure began teaching the Course of General Linguistics, which he offered three times ending in the summer of 1911. He died in 1913 in Vufflens-le-Château, Vaud, Switzerland. His brothers were the linguist and Esperantist René de Saussure, and scholar of ancient Chinese astronomy, Léopold de Saussure. His son Raymond de Saussure was a psychiatrist and prolific psychoanalytic theorist, who was trained under Sigmund Freud himself. Saussure attempted at various times in the 1880s and 1890s to write a book on general linguistic matters. His lectures about important principles of language description in Geneva between 1907 and 1911 were collected and published by his pupils posthumously in the famous Cours de linguistique générale in 1916. Work published in his lifetime includes two monograp
Reader's Guide
Saussure's theoretical reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European language vocalic system and particularly his theory of laryngeals bore fruit and found confirmation after the decipherment of Hittite in the work of later generations of linguists such as Émile Benveniste and Walter Couvreur. His main contributions to structuralism include his notion of the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. There is also his theory of a two-tiered reality about language: langue (the abstract and invisible layer) and parole (the actual speech we hear in real life). This framework was later adopted by Claude Levi-Strauss, who used the two-tiered model to determine the reality of myths. In Europe, the most important work after Saussure's death was done by the Prague school, notably Nikolay Trubetzkoy and Roman Jakobson. Elsewhere, Louis Hjelmslev and the Copenhagen School proposed new interpretations of linguistics from structuralist theoretical frameworks. In America, Saussure's ideas informed the distributionalism of Leonard Bloomfield, but his influence remained limited. Systemic functional linguistics is a theory considered to be based firmly on the Saussurean principles of the sign, albeit with some modifications. Ruqaiya Hasan describes systemic functional linguistics as a 'post-Saussurean' linguistic theory.
Did You Know?
- Saussure published his first major work, Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues indo-européennes, at age 21.
- His most influential work, Course in General Linguistics, was published posthumously in 1916 by former students based on lecture notes.
- Saussure was named Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur during his eleven years teaching at the École pratique des hautes études.
- His son Raymond de Saussure was a psychiatrist trained under Sigmund Freud.
Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)
"Ferdinand de Saussure (1910), Saussure's Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics (1910-1911), Pergamon Press, 1993." — Ferdinand de Saussure "Linguistics is very closely related to other sciences that sometimes borrow from its data, sometimes supply it with data." — Ferdinand de Saussure "Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other." — Ferdinand de Saussure "Writing obscures language ; it is not a guise for language but a disguise." — Ferdinand de Saussure
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