Saussurean Structuralism

NASRULLAH MAMBROL
7 years ago

Saussure introduced Structuralism in Linguistics, marking a

revolutionary break in the study of language, which had till then
been historical and philological. In his Course in General
Linguistics (1916), Saussure saw language as a system of signs
constructed by convention. Understanding meaning to be
relational, being produced by the interaction between various
signifiers and signifieds, he held that meaning cannot be
understood in isolation. Saussure illustrated this relationality of
language, with the terms paradigmatic axis (of selection) and the
syntagmatic axis (of combination), and with the example of 8.25
Geneva to Paris express. Further he challenged the view of reality
as independent and existing outside language and reduced tang
cage to a mere “naming system”. He questioned the conventional
“correspondence theory of meaning” and argued that meaning is
arbitrary, and that language does not merely reflect the world, but
constitutes it.
As Jacques Derrida pointed out, Saussure’s theory is based on
binary oppositions or dyads, i.e., defining a unit in terms of what
it is not, which give rise to oppositional pairs in which one is
always superior to the other. The most fundamental binary
opposition is related to the concept of sign, the basic unit of
signification. In Saussure, the previously undivided sign gets
divided into the signifier (the sound image) and the signified (the
concept). Saussure stressed that the relationship between the
signifier and the signified is conventional and arbitrary, and that
both terms are psychological in nature. There is no one-to-one
relation between the signifier and the signified. For instance the
sound image “tree” may refer to different kinds of trees or it may
even be a metaphor for forest. Therefore, it is inferred that
meaning is arbitrary and unstable.
The second binary opposition is-that of the langue and parole,
where langue refers to language as a structural system based on
certain rules, while parole refers to an individual expression of
language. The terms langue and parole are parallel to the terms
competence and performance formulated by Chomsky. The
binary opposition of synchronic and diachronic refers to the study
of the structure and functions of language at a particular point of
time, and over a period of time respectively. Paradigmatic and
Syntagmatic axes refer to the axes of selection and combination
respectively, where syntagmatic denotes the relationship of units/
words in a linear pattern, while ‘paradigmatic, axis constitutes of
the interchangeable units in a language.

The most significant of the binary oppositions that has been

criticized by Derrida is that of speech and writing. Saussure
privileged speech over writing owing to the subjectivity, authority
and presence of the speaker. Derrida called this phonocentrism, a
manifestation of the logocentrism, which literally means the
centrality of the logos. “Logos” etymologically and historically
means the “Word of God” and by extension, rationality, wisdom,
law – all synonymous with power. Derrida describes logocentrism
as the metaphysics of presence, and is opposed to the concept of
the centrality of presence, because presence contains within itself,
traces of absence, thereby deconstructing its very centrality. In
connection to and in opposition to logocentrism, Derrida
introduces “ecriture”, a French term roughly translated as writing
– which exists beyond the logos and is characterised by absence
and differance, where meaning is constantly under erasure, and
does not have the authority of the logos, and is hence anti-
logocentric. A related word, archi ecriture, refers to writing as an
ultimate principle than as a derivative of logos. According to
Derrida, even speech can be considered as a form of writing —
writing on air waves, or into the memory of the listener. Thus the
concept of ecriture subverts the superiority of speech over
writing.

Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics proved to be of seminal

influence in various fields such as Anthropology (Levi-Strauss),
Semiology (Roland Barthes), the literary and philosophical
concepts of Derrida, Marxist analysis of ideology by Althusser,
psychoanalytical theories of Lacan, and analysis of language
conducted by Feminists like Kristeva, Cixous, Irigaray.