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The Unity of Two Orders: Saussure and the Problem of the Linguistic Entity

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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...
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The Order Behind Language: Saussure and the Problem of Classification II

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“ 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...
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The Order Behind Language: Borges, Saussure, and the Problem of Classification

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“Language ( le langage ) in its entirety has many different and disparate aspects. It lies astride the boundaries separating various domains. It is at the same time physical, physiological and psychological. It belongs both to the individual and to society. No classification of human phenomena provides any single place for it, because language ( le langage ) as such has no discernible unity. A language ( la langue ) as a structured system, on the contrary, is both a self-contained whole and a principle of classification. As soon as we give linguistic structure ( la langue ) pride of place among the facts of language, we introduce a natural order into an aggregate which lends itself to no other classification”. – Ferdinand de Saussure, Course in general linguistics 1. Borges and the Classification That Makes Us Laugh Why does Borges’s strange encyclopedia make us laugh? In Borges’s supposed Chinese encyclopedia, animals are divided into categories such as: (a) belonging ...
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