Seeing Language Differently: Saussure’s Personal Approach to the Linguistic System

Dürer’s Saussure. Aquarelle. AI image

Introduction: A Shift in Perspective

One of Ferdinand de Saussure’s lasting contributions is that he alters not only linguistic theory but also the way we perceive language itself. He urges us to question what normally seems self-evident—namely, that words attach to pre-existing ideas, that speaking is a physical performance, or that communication is nothing more than the transmission of messages. Against these intuitive assumptions, Saussure offers a vision of linguistic activity that is simultaneously cognitive, social and structural. His analyses grow out of concrete experiences of speaking and hearing, yet they culminate in a conception of language as an intricate system of relations. When read carefully, his reflections on the linguistic faculty, the speech circuit and the logic of differences reveal a radically new way of seeing something as familiar as everyday discourse.

The Linguistic Faculty: Beyond Physiology

Saussure begins with an observation drawn from nineteenth-century neurological studies. Broca had shown that speech correlates with a specific area of the left hemisphere. Many interpreted this as evidence that language is a natural endowment localized in discrete centres. Saussure, however, notices that the same region is implicated in writing, and that pathologies such as aphasia and agraphia typically affect both modes at once. What is disrupted, he writes, “is not so much the ability to utter or inscribe this or that, but the ability to produce in any given mode signs corresponding to normal language” (Course in General Linguistics, hereafter CGL, p. 26).

From this he infers the existence of “a more general faculty governing signs, which may be regarded as the linguistic faculty par excellence” (CGL, p. 27). This faculty is not metaphysical; it is a cognitive capacity shared by members of a community. Organs, neural impulses and articulatory mechanisms are necessary, but they do not explain language itself. What matters is the underlying system that coordinates concepts with socially recognized forms. Saussure names this system la langue: internal but not private, mental yet sustained by collective practice.

The Speech Circuit: Language as a Social Product

To clarify the nature of la langue, Saussure turns to the elementary act of two individuals speaking. In the speech circuit, a concept in A’s mind activates a sound pattern, becomes an acoustic wave and is reconstituted by B. When B responds, the cycle is reversed. The description is simple, but Saussure uses it to locate where linguistic structure resides. The sound itself is merely a conduit. The crucial element is the shared stock of signs that allows A and B to reproduce the same associations.

This trésor is not housed in any single individual:

“The language is never complete in any single individual but exists perfectly only in the collectivity.” (CGL, p. 13)

For communication to function at all, this structure must already be present. Language thus appears not as an instrument individuals manipulate, but as a system they inhabit—one that precedes each speaker and renders mutual understanding possible.

Against Nomenclature: Meaning Emerges from Differences

This perspective leads directly to Saussure’s most decisive break with traditional views: his critique of the idea that language is a nomenclature. The conventional assumption is that vocabulary consists of a list of labels corresponding to a list of ideas. Saussure dismantles this view:

“This conception… assumes that ideas already exist independently of words… [and] that the link between a name and a thing is unproblematic.” (CGL, p. 65)

He demonstrates that meanings do not exist independently of linguistic relations but arise from contrasts internal to each system. His example is telling: louer in French covers both “to rent” and “to hire,” while German distinguishes mieten and vermieten. The sense of each term is determined not by a universal concept but by the network of oppositions specific to that language.

Grammar and Phonology: The Logic of Opposition

Saussure’s insight reaches its most precise formulation in his discussion of grammar and phonology. In the pair Nacht : Nächte, the singular and plural forms are defined purely through their contrast. “In isolation,” he writes, “they are nothing; the opposition between them is everything.” (CGL, p. 155) The plural ending and the umlaut have no intrinsic value; they gain significance only within the system of oppositions.

The same principle governs sounds. Phonemes are not positive acoustic entities but values defined by their ability to be differentiated from neighbouring units:

“Speech sounds are first and foremost entities which are contrastive, relative and negative.” (CGL, pp. 65–66)

This explains why French allows wide variation in the pronunciation of r, while German requires a strict distinction between r and ch. What matters is not the physical substance of the sound but its role in the pattern of differences.

Conclusion: Seeing Language Anew

From neurological clues to interpersonal exchange and structural analysis, Saussure constructs a unified vision of language as a web of relations. His approach is not merely descriptive; it invites a new experience of linguistic life. To understand another person, to hear a sound as meaningful, or to distinguish a singular from a plural is to participate in a system where every unit is what the others are not. La langue is abstract yet indispensable, intangible yet essential to thought.

Saussure’s final claim is therefore not a technical remark but a philosophical insight:

“In language, there is nothing but differences.” (CGL, p. 166)

This principle captures the spirit of his entire project: a call to see language not as a list of labels, but as a dynamic structure in which meaning arises from the delicate balance of oppositions that bind a community together.

Bibliography

• Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. Roy Harris. London: Duckworth, 1983.
• Joseph, John E. Saussure. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Harris, Roy. Reading Saussure. London: Duckworth, 1987.