Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de linguistique générale [Course in General Linguistics]

Pierre-Alexis Mevel (University of Nottingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.06: French Writing and Culture: Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Language & Linguistics

Dates

First circulation or publication 1915

Places

France (Publication/ performance)
Switzerland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

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Recommended Reading

For Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) – as for many others – the act of writing was fraught with difficulties: how can one put into writing a thinking process that never ceases to evolve? Saussure’s

Cours de linguistique générale

– to this day his most enduring and celebrated work – was in fact edited posthumously (1916) by two of Saussure’s own students, Charles Bally and Albert Séchehaye, in collaboration with Albert Riedlinger.

The Cours de linguistique générale is a relatively short work written in clear French prose, which continues to prevail as a key text in contemporary Social and Human Sciences. Saussure is widely acknowledged as the father of structuralism (though he himself never used the word, merely referring to the concept of langue [language] as a sign

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Citation: Mevel, Pierre-Alexis. "Cours de linguistique générale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19828, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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