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“If we were invited first to determine the chemical classification of a sheet of iron, gold, or copper, and then the zoological species of a horse, cow, or sheep, these would be two easy tasks. But if we were asked to determine what ‘species’ is represented by the odd combination of an iron plaque attached to a horse, a gold plate on a cow, or a sheep adorned with something copper, we would exclaim that the task was absurd. The linguist has to realize that it is precisely this absurd task that faces him right from the very outset.” — Ferdinand de Saussure, Writings in General Linguistics Introduction — The Sheep and the Metal Plate What kind of object is a linguistic unit? In Writings in General Linguistics , p. 3, section “On the Dual Essence of Language” ( De l’essence double du langage ), Ferdinand de Saussure approaches this question through an apparently absurd example. A sheep can be classified without difficulty, as can a metal plate: the first belongs to a zoological...

“ This book first arose out of a passage in Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all the familiar landmarks of my thought…The monstrous quality that runs through Borges’s enumeration consists in the fact that the common ground on which such meetings are possible has itself been destroyed. ” – Michael Foucault, The Order of Things 1. The Problem: Langage Has No Single Object What exactly is the object of linguistics? Saussure begins with a difficulty that seems deceptively simple: language, taken in its entirety, does not present itself as a single, clearly defined object. What he calls langage encompasses physical, physiological, and psychological phenomena, while belonging at once to the individual and to society and existing both as an established system and as the product of historical change. Because these dimensions overlap without forming a single homogeneous domain, langage cannot simply be placed within one category of human facts (Saussur...