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I am delighted that Wade Baskin's classic translation is back in print, especially since Saussy and Meisel's judicious updating and summary of recent scholarly discoveries make this an invaluable resource for English readers.
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The founder of modern linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure inaugurated semiology, structuralism, and deconstruction and made possible the work of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan, thus enabling the development of French feminism, gender studies, New Historicism, and postcolonialism. Based on Saussure's lectures, Course in General Linguistics (1916) traces the rise and fall of the historical linguistics in which Saussure was trained, the synchronic or structural linguistics with which he replaced it, and the new look of diachronic linguistics that followed this change. Most important, Saussure presents the principles of a new linguistic science that includes the invention of semiology, or the theory of the "signifier," the "signified," and the "sign" that they combine to produce. This is the first critical edition of Course in General Linguistics to appear in English and restores Wade Baskin's original translation of 1959, in which the terms "signifier" and "signified" are introduced into English in this precise way. Baskin renders Saussure clearly and accessibly, allowing readers to experience his shift of the theory of reference from mimesis to performance and his expansion of poetics to include all media, including the life sciences and environmentalism. An introduction situates Saussure within the history of ideas and describes the history of scholarship that made Course in General Linguistics legendary. New endnotes enlarge Saussure's contexts to include literary criticism, cultural studies, and philosophy.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Foundation of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism,
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This review is from: Course In General Linguistics (Paperback)
Saussure is important as a linguist (although many of his theories have since been put out to pasture) ... but he is most important for his contributions to the theory of Structuralism (and, later, Poststructuralism). His idea that you could not study language as individual units, but rather had to examine it as a structure and study how the units interacted within the structure, was enormously influential in modern and postmodern philosophy. This book is not particularly difficult; it's a bit dry, but what can you expect from a linguistics class? If you read it carefully, you'll have no problem grasping what he is saying... and, when you are done, you will be well on your way to understanding what people like Lacan, Derrida and Foucault are trying to say. (You'll also be well along your way to understanding Claude Levi-Strauss, who attempted to do for anthropology what Saussure did for linguistics). If you want to understand modern philosophy, Saussure is as indispensible as Marx or Freud. Combine this with *Saussure for Beginners* and you'll pick up Saussure's train of thought in no time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The origin of structuralism,
By Suckwoo Lee (Seoul, Seoul South Korea) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Course In General Linguistics (Paperback)
This book is the manifesto of structural linguistics. But it has been widely read outside linguistics for it served as corner stone of structuralism. It was not intended to be published. In fact Saussure never wrote any book. It was principally a lecture. So lines of the book are easy to follow and clear-cut. But the power of the statement could be felt even now. It set off the mighty paradigm.As Foucault said in his work, ¡®The Order of Things¡¯, the history of thoughts is the history of models. For example, the biology, in particular Darwin¡¯s evolutionism, served as model to thoughts of the 19th century: beliefs in progression of Marxism and liberalism drew on the analogy between society and evolution of organism. Functionalism in social sciences also utilized that analogy. The 19th century is the age of biology. The linguistics of that time also took the organic model as the fountain of inspiration: the language is a organic entity which evolves though time. Phoneme and word change, in other word evolve over time. In Saussure¡¯s term, it¡¯s the diachronic aspect of phoneme and word. The linguistics of the 19th century was the history of them. But Saussure contended that phoneme and word have no memory: at any point of ¡®parole (the language in practice)¡¯, each word has only one meaning. In everyday life, etymology doesn¡¯t make sense at all. The reality of language lies not in diachrony but in synchrony. This is the point where Saussure redefined the linguistics: the object of linguistics is not diachronic (or historical) fact but synchronic system (langue, in Saussure¡¯s term). Phoneme and word make sense not in their own, but against systemic background like grammar. The object of the linguistics is not phoneme or word in practice (parole) but the system that gives meaning them (langue). Phoneme and word have meaning only in the way how they are different from each other. The langue is the system of that difference. Here comes in the very concept of structure that give rise to French structuralism. Structuralism is the thoughts based on the model of language which Saussure redefined, that is the system of difference
5.0 out of 5 stars
Summons up what structuralism and post- is going to become!,
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This review is from: Course In General Linguistics (Paperback)
Well if you are having problems with Derrida or the other post philosophers why do you hesitate? Go right back to the source of confusion: Saussure.In a very didactic and relatively simple way "the master" deliver his knowledge. And after this book don't forget Of Grammatology.
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