Return to Saussure

  Introduction In his article “Saussure after Half a Century,” Émile Benveniste explores Ferdinand de Saussure’s foundational concepts, such as language structure ( la langue ) and the nature of the linguistic sign ( signe ). He quotes from Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 12 , highlighting Saussure's view on the law of language: “The absolutely final law of language is, we dare say, that there is nothing which can ever reside in one term.” At this juncture, Benveniste introduces the term “semiotics” into the discussion, a concept associated with Peirce rather than Saussure: “But what we wish to emphasize here is the scope of the principle of the sign when set up as a unit of language. From that it results that language becomes a semiotic system : "The task of the linguist," said Saussure, "is to find out what makes language a special system within the mass of semiological data .... But to me the language problem is mainly semiological . " We see that this...