System, arbitrariness, value

Claudine Normand

pp. 88-104

in: Carol Sanders (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Saussure, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004

Abstract

This chapter offers a historical and theoretical perspective. A comprehensive understanding of Saussure's ideas requires some idea of how other linguists at the time dealt with the same topics. Only in this way can the novelty of his theory become clear, a novelty of which contemporary linguists were not fully aware. The key notions that are addressed in this chapter - system, arbitrariness and value - are at the very heart of Saussure's objectives, and are abstract and theoretical, even more so than other concepts in the CLG.

Cited authors

de Saussure Ferdinand