Level: Second year Course: Linguistics Teacher: Dr. Tobbi S.

What is the Difference Between American and European Structuralism?

The main difference between American and European structuralism is that American structuralism was
a movement greatly influenced by behaviorism, but European structuralism was directly influenced by
Saussure’s notion of langue.

Structuralism refers to the heterogeneous school of structural linguistics that developed in Europe and
America in the first half of the 20th century. The main aim of both movements was to describe and classify
linguistic units; however, there are many differences between these two movements.
What is Structuralism in Linguistics
The term structuralism was used in many contexts across various disciplines in the 20th century. It originates
from the basic concept that all phenomena occur in relation to each other, not independently, and that all
phenomena are part of a whole with a definite structure. In linguistics, structuralism is based on the concept that
language is a structured system of formal units, and linguistic study should involve exploring the nature of those
units and their systematic arrangement, without reference to historical antecedents or comparison with other
languages.

The field of structural linguistics originates from the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.
Furthermore, structural linguistics refers to two main movements that developed independently of each other.
They are the American structuralism and European structuralism.

What is American Structuralism

American structuralism generally refers to the study of structural linguistics in North America from the
1920s to late 1950s. Franz Boas, Leonard Bloomfield and Edward Sapir were some prominent American
linguists in this movement. Leonard Bloomfield led the development of structural linguistics in the US during
the 1930s and 40s. This time period is, in fact, called the Bloomfieldian era. Bloomfield and his fellow
linguistics mainly focused on forms of linguistics items and the way they were structured, instead of focusing
on semantics.

In this era, linguists focused mostly on writing descriptive grammars of unwritten languages, especially the
Native American languages which were dying out. IT involved collecting sets of utterances from native speakers
and analysing the corpus of collected data by studying the syntactic and phonological patterns of the language,
as far as possible without reference to meaning. Moreover, this method identified and classified the linguistics
items based on their distribution within the corpus. In this analysis, linguists found that those native languages
couldn’t be described with categories established by traditional linguists, which were based on European
languages. It compelled the American linguists to do more advanced studies. Therefore, it is this focus on the
Native American languages that actually formed American linguistics, differentiating it from other movements
of linguistics structuralism.

Characteristics of American Structuralism

1. Began as an offshoot of anthropology
2. Influenced by behaviorist psychology
3. Focused on native American languages, which were dying out
4. Neglect of semantics
5. Attempted to develop a methodology to describe any corpus in terms of the distribution of its
expression-elements relative to each other.

What is European Structuralism

European structuralism was directly influenced and inspired by the work of Saussure. The central concept
of this movement is that language is a system of signs and has a structure. Since it is a system of signs, one
cannot identify expression-elements (sounds, words) independently of the content-elements (meanings).
Therefore, it is not possible to separate the study of language from the study of meaning. This is where the
concept of sign, signified, and signifier comes in. In simple words, Signifier is the image or sound associated
with something (e.g., a table), while signified is the idea or concept of the thing (e.g., the idea of a table). Also,
the sign is the object that combines the signifier and the signified into a meaningful unit.
 Furthermore, according to Saussure, language operates at two levels: langue and parole. Langue is an
abstract system, whereas parole is actual speech. Besides, there are various schools of European structuralism
such as the Geneva School, Prague School, Copenhagen School, and Paris School.

Difference Between American and European Structuralism

Definition
American structuralism is a heterogeneous movement of linguistics that occurred in the US from the 1930s
to 1960s. European structuralism is a heterogeneous movement of linguistics that developed in Europe during
the 1920s.

Prominent Linguists
Ferdinand de Saussure was the most prominent linguist in European structuralism. On the other hand,
Leonard Bloomfield was the most prominent linguist in American structuralism.

Languages
American structuralism involved the study of Native American languages. Since it was an unexplored area,
linguists had to determine their rules and grammar structures first, before describing these languages patterns
and comparing them with English. However, European structuralism involved European languages, which had
been extensively studied before.

Meaning/ Semantics
In American structuralism, one can observe complete neglect of semantics or meaning. But, in European
structuralism, the study of language cannot be separated from the study of meaning.

Type of Study
Moreover, European structuralism mostly involved abstract ideas and concepts. But, American
structuralism was comparatively more applied in nature.

Nature
American structuralism began as an offshoot of anthropology and was influenced by behaviorism. On the
other hand, European structuralism takes a more pure linguistics approach.

Conclusion
In brief, American structuralism and European structuralism are two main structural linguistics movements
that developed independently of each other. American structuralism began as an offshoot of anthropology and
was influenced by behaviorism. European structuralism, on the other hand, was directly inspired and influenced
by the work of Saussure. Moreover, American structuralism focused on Native American languages, while
European structuralism focused on European languages, which has clearly identifiable grammar rules and
structures. Therefore, there is a distinct difference between American and European structuralism.