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Unit 3: Brief History of the Growth of Modern Linguistics: Bloomfield to Chomsky

Each one of the units of a system is thus defined by relations which it maintains with the other Notes
units and by the oppositions into which it enters. Thus the idea that the data of a language have
value in themselves and are objective “facts”, absolute entities susceptible of being considered in
isolation, was abandoned. In reality, linguistic entities can be determined only within the system
that organizes and governs them, and in terms, of each other. They have no value except as
elements in a structure. It is first the system which has to be isolated and described. Thus a theory
of language as a system of signs and as arrangement of units in a hierarchy was worked out by
Saussure, replacing the positivist notion of the linguistic fact by that of relationship.
Saussure’s Contribution
Saussure’s contribution in the field of linguistics is of great significance. His name is revered and
respected along with the names of Panini, Bloomfield and Chomsky. He revolutionized linguistics,
made it descriptive and structural, gave it a methodology and objectivity and brought it out of the
rut it had fallen in. He is, indeed, one of the greatest theoreticians of the new era of linguistics. It
was he who first of all emphasized repeatedly the importance of viewing language as a living
phenomenon (as against the historical view) of studying speech (as opposed to written texts), of
analysing the underlying system of a language in order to demonstrate an integral structure (in
place of isolated phonetic tendencies and occasional grammatical comparisons), and in placing
language firmly in its social milieu (as opposed to seeing it solely as a set of physical features). The
tradition of study which has grown up around Saussure, has been to extract various theoretical
dichotomies from his work and to concentrate on the clarification of these.
Saussure’s great service to the study of language lies in a series of rigorous distinctions and
definitions which he made concerning the nature of language. Though a historical linguist in the
beginning, he detached himself from the tradition of linguistics as a purely historical study.
Following Saussure, linguists discovered that language forms a system: that it is a systematic
arrangement of parts; and that it is made up of formal elements put together in variable
combinations, according to certain principles of structure. It was the Saussurean emphasis on
syntagmatic relationship in structure which was taken as the keynote of a number of theories of
language thereafter, and which underlines many other linguistic approaches to language today,
though their terminology sometimes differs considerably from that found in Saussure. His Course
established language on the plane of universal terminology. The Saussurian distinction between
langue and parole was the first germ of what has developed into a new branch of linguistics,
phonology, the theory of the distinctive functions of phonemes and of the structure of their
relationships. When they found it, N. Trubetzkoy and R. Jakobson expressly recognized Saussure
(as well as Baudovin de Courtenay) as their precursor. Even Chomsky’s notion of competence and
performance owes a great deal to Saussure’s notion of langue and parole.
Influence of Saussure
The structuralist trend which emerged in 1928, and which was soon to assume major importance,
owes its origin to Saussure. Bloomfield gave a very laudatory review of the Course, and said that
Saussure “has given us the theoretical basis for a science of human speech.” A. Meillet and M.
Grammout were profoundly influenced by him. Meillet regretted Saussure’s untimely passing
away without finishing the work he had begun, and said: “After more than thirty years, the ideas
expressed by Ferdinand de Saussure in his early work have not exhausted their vitality” (quoted
by Beneveniste). Louis Hjelmslev’s ‘glossematics’ is often reminiscent of Saussure’s system.
Influenced partly by Saussure and partly by Lady Welby’s campaign to improve language, Ogden
and Richards published a survey of opinions about meaning, called The Meaning of Meaning in
1923.
Saussure’s studies of values were later expanded into techniques for determining not only the
limit that set off a given signification, but were equally helpful in structuring the entire vocabulary
into semantic units. His proposals have been found useful in present day information theory too.
Linguistic-field theory was also influenced by Saussure. The Linguistic Circle of Geneva produced
a considerable amount of work, particularly on the more ‘social’ aspects of Saussure’s thinking.

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