**Saussure’s Approach to Language**

**Historical Context:**

- Saussure’s theories oppose two major views:

- The **Port-Royal Grammarians** (1660) saw language as a mirror of thought, based on universal
logic, and fundamentally rational.

- **Nineteenth-century linguistics** viewed the history of a language as key to understanding its

current state, emphasizing languages like Sanskrit as the ancient connectors of all languages.

**Key Elements of Saussure’s Theory:**

1. **Shift in Focus:**

- Saussure shifted focus from the historical evolution of languages to the present structure of specific
languages.

- He believed that understanding a language involves looking at how its elements relate to each other
rather than their historical origins.

2. **Language as a System of Differences:**

- Language is a structured system where elements (words, sounds) only have meaning through their
relationships and differences from one another.

- There are no positive terms; instead, meaning comes from the differences between terms.

- Saussure used the analogy of a chess game: the value of pieces (like words) comes from their position
and relation to other pieces, not their intrinsic value.

3. **Arbitrary Relationship Between Signifier and Signified:**

- Each linguistic sign is made up of a **signifier** (word or sound) and a **signified** (concept).

- The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary; there is no inherent connection between
a word and the thing it represents.
4. **Langue and Parole:**

- **Langue**: The overall system or structure of a language.

- **Parole**: Individual speech acts or instances of using the language.

- Language (langue) is a social institution, while individual speech acts (parole) are personal and varied.
Language changes over time, not at the whim of individuals, but as a collective evolution.

**Impact on Human Sciences:**

- Saussure’s model influenced the study of human actions as systems of meaning, focusing on the
structure and conventions of societies rather than individual actions or historical events.

- This approach led to structuralism in various fields, emphasizing the importance of understanding
social and cultural systems as interconnected structures rather than isolated facts or events.

**Critiques and Legacy:**

- Some critics argue that this structural approach limits the recognition of individual autonomy and
freedom.

- Despite these criticisms, Saussure’s ideas have profoundly influenced the study of language, culture,
and society, highlighting the importance of relational and differential analysis.

Freud
Freud's ideas can still be relevant today, especially when we consider new psychological issues like
autism, psychosomatic disorders, and narcissistic personality disturbances. These issues often present
challenges that go beyond what language can represent. Modern trends in psychology sometimes try to
address these issues by bypassing the material aspects of language and instead applying logical
strategies that may or may not involve the concept of a subject.

Freud's views on language are not singular but can be seen in at least three different ways. The first
model of language he developed appears in his early works, like "The Contribution to the Concept of
Aphasia" (1891) and "Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1895). In these works, Freud starts with the
idea that there is a mismatch between sexual desire and language. He believed that sexual desire is
difficult to express in language and that intelligence and language are fundamentally different from
sexual desire.

Freud saw a gap between our physical desires and our ability to speak about them. He believed this gap
was partly due to neurosis but also to our initial immaturity—language comes only after our early
experiences. This gap is evident in cases like that of Little Hans, where Freud explores the difficulty of
translating unconscious desires into words. Because of this mismatch between body and language,
Freud developed what we can call a "heterogeneous model of language." This model recognizes the
difference between how words and things are represented in our minds.

In summary, Freud's early model of language highlights the difficulty of capturing sexual desire through
language and the fundamental differences between physical desires and verbal expression. This model is
less emphasized by followers of Lacan but is still discussed in certain psychoanalytic circles.

Freud's view of language places it between two important systems: the system of energy and
perception, and the system of logical thinking. Because of this, language helps us gain knowledge and
consciousness. In Freud's view, language is crucial because it acts as a bridge between perception (what
we sense and experience) and logic (how we think and reason). It is not just about words and their
meanings (signifier/signified), but rather, it connects our sensory experiences with our intellectual
activities, including memory, logic, and even metaphysical connections.

This model of language can be called a "layered conception" because it involves different layers:
sensation and perception on one side, and logical thinking on the other. It is different from the later
linguistic models based on the ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, which focus on the relationship between
the signifier (the word) and the signified (the concept).

Interestingly, this first model from Freud, which is less discussed by Lacanian psychoanalysts,
emphasizes the biological and medical aspects of language. Freud's background as a biologist and
medical doctor influenced this model, making it account for sensations, perceptions, and energy.
Therefore, this model is referred to as a "stripped" model of language because it goes back to these
basic, fundamental elements.

In summary, Freud's early model of language is unique because it considers language as a bridge
between our sensory experiences and our logical thinking, incorporating biological and medical
perspectives. This makes it different from later models that focus more on the structure of language
itself.

Three Approaches to Linguistic Theorizing: Externalism,

Emergentism, and Essentialism
: Externalism
Externalists believe that the main goal of linguistic theory is to create accurate models of the
structural properties of speech sounds, words, phrases, and other linguistic items. To do this,
they prioritize using corpora (collections of written and oral language)—which are recorded
examples of how language is used. The aim is to describe how this public record shows certain
patterns that can be predicted.

In American structural linguistics from the 1920s to the 1950s, there was a focus on developing
methods to use corpora for describing the structure of natural languages. However, this work
became practical only with the advent of cheap, powerful, and fast computers. André Martinet
noted that a key assumption of structuralist linguistics is that anything considered 'linguistic'
must be manifest between the speaker and listener. But he also mentioned that linguists
should not limit their research to just the audible parts of communication—speech represents
something beyond just sounds.

Leonard Bloomfield, a prominent American structuralist, faced criticism from Essentialists.

Some criticism was justified, like his adoption of a nominalist view, influenced by logical
empiricists. However, he was also criticized for being anti-mentalist, despite his view that
linguistics should not be tied to any specific psychological theory. Earlier, he had supported the
mentalist psychology of Wilhelm Wundt.

### Externalism: Primary Phenomena

- **Actual Utterances as Produced by Language Users**: This focuses on real-life examples of

how people speak and write naturally.
### Primary Subject Matter

- **Language Use**: This refers to how people actually use language in everyday life.

- **Structural Properties of Expressions and Languages**: This involves understanding the rules
and patterns that form sentences and other expressions in a language.

### Aim

- **To Describe Attested Expression Structure and Interrelations**: This means explaining how
different expressions are structured and how they relate to each other based on real examples.

- **Predicting Properties of Unattested Expressions**: This involves making educated guesses

about expressions we haven't encountered yet, based on the patterns we've observed.

### Linguistic Structure

- **A System of Patterns, Inferrable from Generally Accessible, Objective Features of Language
Use**: Linguistic structure is a set of patterns that can be identified from common and
observable aspects of how language is used.

### Values

- **Accurate Modeling of Linguistic Form that Accords with Empirical Data and Permits
Prediction Concerning Unconsidered Cases**: The goal is to create precise models of language
that match real-world data and allow us to predict new, unseen examples.

### Children's Language

- **A Nascent Form of Language, Very Different from Adult Linguistic Competence**: Children's
language is an early and developing form of language that differs significantly from how adults
use language.

### What is Acquired

- **A Grasp of the Distributional Properties of the Constituents of Expressions of a Language**:
Children learn the patterns and rules about how different parts of a language (words, phrases,
etc.) are distributed and used.

In summary, externalism in linguistics emphasizes studying real-world language use to

understand its structures and patterns. The goal is to model these patterns accurately based on
empirical data, predict new expressions, and understand how language develops in children.

Emergentism
Emergentists aim to explain the ability to use language by looking at non-linguistic human
capacities like thinking, communicating, and interacting. Edward Sapir, a key figure in
Emergentist thought, said that language is mainly a cultural or social product and should be
understood in that context. He criticized linguists for focusing too much on the detailed
patterns of language without considering its broader role in human behavior.

Sociolinguistics, which aligns with Sapir's ideas, studies how social and linguistic structures
influence each other. For example, Labov (1966) explored how social class affects language
variation, and Eckert (1989) looked at how status within a group influences linguistic
innovation. Emergentists are particularly interested in these kinds of variations within
languages.

Another type of Emergentist, like Tomasello (2003), emphasizes the role of human abilities like
understanding others' thoughts and using symbols to influence them, as key to language
acquisition, use, and invention. MacWhinney (2005) explains linguistic phenomena by how
conversation helps track information accurately and switch perspectives.

Functionalist approaches to language study, which fall under Emergentism, view language as a
system of social interaction. According to Van Valin, syntax (the structure of sentences) is
influenced by meaning, practical use, and cognitive factors. Russ Tomlin, another functionalist,
argues that syntax is not separate from semantics (meaning) or pragmatics (practical use), and
that specific grammatical forms are closely linked to specific meanings and uses in discourse.
Essentialists, on the other hand, believe that linguistic form, especially syntactic form, is
autonomous and not influenced by semantics or pragmatics. Some might think this means
Emergentism and Essentialism are incompatible, but that's not necessarily true. There are
various interpretations of the autonomy of form among Essentialists, and they don't all agree
on everything. For instance, some believe that linguistic concepts should not be defined in
psychological or biological terms, while others see it as a normative claim that they should not
be characterized by non-linguistic concepts.

Emergentists like Tomlin, Van Valin, and MacWhinney might believe that the explanation of
syntactic form is ultimately related to discourse functions and semantics but still accept that
syntactic categories cannot be reduced to non-linguistic ones. This shows that there can be
common ground between Emergentists and Essentialists.

Let's simplify and connect the key concepts of emergentism in linguistics.

### Emergentism

- **Facts of Social Cognition, Interaction, and Communication**: Emergentism focuses on how

social thinking, interactions, and communication shape language.

### Linguistic Communication, Cognition, Variation, and Change

- **Linguistic Communication**: How people use language to communicate.

- **Cognition**: Mental processes involved in understanding and producing language.

- **Variation and Change**: How language differs among groups and evolves over time.

### Aim

- **To Explain Structural Properties of Languages in Terms of General Cognitive Mechanisms

and Communicative Functions**: The goal is to understand the structure of languages by
looking at how the mind works and how people use language to communicate.

### Linguistic Structure

- **A System of Constructions that Range from Fixed Idiomatic Phrases to Highly Abstract
Productive Types**: Language consists of everything from set phrases to flexible structures that
can be used creatively.

### Explanations

- **Cognitive, Cultural, Historical, and Evolutionary Explanations of Phenomena Found in

Linguistic Communication Systems**: Language phenomena are explained through the lens of
how the brain works, cultural influences, historical changes, and evolution.

### Children's Language

- **A Series of Stages in an Ontogenetic Process of Developing Adult Communicative

Competence**: Children go through stages as they develop the ability to communicate like
adults.

### What is Acquired

- **A Mainly Conventional and Culturally Transmitted System for Linguistic Communication**:
What people learn is largely based on established conventions and cultural transmission.

In summary, emergentism in linguistics seeks to explain how language structures arise from
general cognitive processes and social communication needs. It views language as a dynamic
system shaped by cognitive, cultural, historical, and evolutionary factors, and sees children's
language development as a process leading to adult communicative competence.

Essentialism
Leonard Bloomfield is considered a key figure for Externalism, Edward Sapir for Emergentism,
and Noam Chomsky for Essentialism. Essentialists aim to identify the fundamental properties of
language that define it. Many in this field follow Chomsky's ideas, suggesting that there are
universal aspects of human language that help children learn languages quickly and efficiently.
These universals are thought to be unlearned but known implicitly, allowing children to master
language despite varying intelligence levels and social backgrounds.
Generative Essentialists, like Chomsky, focus on surprising language features that can't be
predicted from usage data, human cognition, or communication needs. They are less interested
in language variation and more in how children universally achieve language mastery. They
believe that certain unlearned features common to all languages assist in language acquisition.

Many contemporary Essentialists influenced by Chomsky argue that semantics (meaning) and
pragmatics (use of language) are not central to linguistic study. Chomsky himself suggested that
linguistic theory should focus on grammar, including phonology (sounds) and syntax (sentence
structure), and not on semantics, which he viewed as more related to syntax or an interface
level between syntax and pragmatics.

While Bloomfield thought excluding semantics was practical due to its underdeveloped state,
Chomsky's view is that semantics isn't part of the language faculty's essence. However, not all
Essentialists agree with Chomsky on this. Some believe that semantics is essential for a full
linguistic theory.

Today, many linguists study the syntax-semantics interface, which examines how sentence
structures relate to their meanings. This area interests those who look at how syntax (structure)
and semantics (meaning) interact, rather than focusing solely on semantics. For those
interested in this modern approach, works by Partee, Jacobson, Szabolcsi, Chierchia, and
Steedman are useful resources.

Let's break down the key concepts of essentialism in linguistics in simpler terms.

### Essentialism

- **Intuitions of Grammaticality and Literal Meaning**: Essentialism focuses on people's innate

sense of what is grammatically correct and what sentences mean literally.

### Abstract Universal Principles

- **Abstract Universal Principles that Explain the Properties of Specific Languages**:
Essentialism posits that there are underlying universal rules that can explain the features of all
languages.

### Aim

- **To Articulate Universal Principles and Provide Explanations for Deep and Cross-Linguistically
Constant Linguistic Properties**: The goal is to identify and explain the deep, universal rules
that apply to all languages.

### Linguistic Structure

- **A System of Abstract Conditions that May Not Be Evident from the Experience of Typical
Language Users**: The structure of language involves abstract rules that regular speakers might
not notice or be aware of.

### Explanations

- **Highly Abstract, Covering-Law Explanations for Properties of Language as Inferred from

Linguistic Intuitions**: Explanations for language properties are very abstract and based on
intuitive understanding of language rules.

### Children's Language

- **Very Similar to Adult Linguistic Competence Though Obscured by Cognitive, Articulatory,

and Lexical Limits**: Children's language ability is fundamentally similar to adults' but may be
limited by their cognitive development, speech abilities, and vocabulary.

### What is Acquired

- **An Internalized Generative Device that Characterizes an Infinite Set of Expressions**: What
people acquire is an internal system that allows them to produce an unlimited number of
sentences and expressions.
In summary, essentialism in linguistics seeks to identify and explain the deep, universal
principles underlying all languages. It relies on people's innate intuitions about grammar and
meaning, positing that children have an internal system that develops into adult-like language
competence, even if initially limited by their cognitive and physical capabilities.