Ferdinand Saussure Swiss linguist, one of the founders of modern linguistic science Date of Birth: 26.11.1857 Country: Switzerland

Ferdinand de Saussure: A Biography of the Swiss Linguist

Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and one of the pioneers of modern linguistic science. He was born on November 26, 1857, in Geneva, Switzerland, to a family of French immigrants. At the age of 18, he enrolled at the University of Leipzig in Germany, where he obtained his doctorate degree in 1880.

After completing his studies in Germany, Saussure moved to France. From 1881 to 1891, he taught Sanskrit at the School for Advanced Studies in Paris. During this time, he also served as the secretary of the Paris Linguistic Society, where he had a significant influence on the development of linguistics. Later, from 1906 to 1911, he lectured on comparative grammar and general linguistics at the University of Geneva.

Saussure's theoretical works marked a turning point in linguistics, shifting the focus from the historical and comparative study of languages to the analysis of language synchrony, which refers to the structure of a specific language at a given moment in time. He was the first to consistently differentiate between synchronic and diachronic approaches to language, and his emphasis on synchrony revolutionized the field of linguistics. His synchronic structural descriptions played a crucial role in linguistic research throughout the 20th century.

Despite only publishing one work, Saussure quickly gained recognition in the field of linguistics. His Memoir on the Primitive System of Vowels in Indo-European Languages, published in 1878 while he was still a student in Leipzig, placed him among the leading authorities of his time. In this memoir, Saussure proposed the existence of special phonemes in the Proto-Indo-European language, which had disappeared in its descendant languages such as Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, and Latin. Known as the laryngeal theory, this hypothesis helped explain many issues in the study of the evolution of Indo-European phonological systems.

Another significant work by Saussure is Course in General Linguistics, which was published in 1916, posthumously. The book, which was reconstructed from the notes of his students Charles Bally and Albert Seche, became widely known and showcased Saussure's views on the nature of language and the objectives of linguistics. A key contribution of the Course was the distinction between diachronic (historical and comparative) and synchronic (descriptive) linguistics. Saussure argued that diachronic studies should be based on carefully executed synchronic descriptions. He believed that the study of language changes throughout history is impossible without a thorough synchronic analysis of the language at specific moments of its evolution. Furthermore, the comparison of two different languages is only possible through a preliminary and meticulous synchronic analysis of each of them.

Another important aspect of Saussure's theory is the differentiation between a speaker's knowledge of a language and its use in everyday situations. He emphasized that linguists should distinguish between the system of units that constitute the grammar of a language and are used by all its speakers to construct sentences, and the individual utterances made by specific speakers, which are variable and unpredictable. Saussure referred to the universal set of units used by all speakers as "langue," while individual speech acts were called "parole." He argued that it is the langue, not the parole, that is the true object of linguistics since an adequate description of a language should reflect the system of elements known to all its speakers.

Saussure's distinctions between synchrony and diachrony, as well as between langue and parole, stimulated a reevaluation of traditional linguistic methods and laid the theoretical foundation for a new direction in linguistic research, as noted by the renowned American linguist Leonard Bloomfield.

Ferdinand de Saussure passed away on February 22, 1913, in Vufflens-le-Château, Switzerland, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of linguistics.