The key formative figure in the intellectual life of the young Ferdinand de Saussure was Adolphe Pictet (1799–1875), a family friend best remembered for his Les origines indo-européennes, ou Les Aryas primitifs: Essai de paléontologie linguistique (1859–1863). A review of its second edition written by Saussure two years after Pictet’s death contains a wealth of information about his life and work, including a description of his book Du beau, dans la nature, l’art et la poésie: Etudes esthétiques (1856). In it, Pictet makes clear that aesthetics is principally centred on the problem of the meaning of the word beauty, and that within this problem are to be found all the tensions between the rational and sensible, the intellectual and emotional, the subjective and objective, and intention and reaction, that are at the heart of the whole Enlightenment discourse on the nature of language. A number of remarks on regularity of form in nature, for example in crystallisation, find echoes in Saussure’s later characterisation of the language system, as do Pictet’s assertions about the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign and about the signified being not a thing but a concept. Indeed, a number of ‘influences’ on Saussure which Aarsleff (1982) credited to Hippolyte Taine (1828–1893) – for whom we have no independent evidence of such influence – can more convincingly be ascribed to his early mentor Pictet. Du beau moreover provides a ‘missing link’ between the Enlightenment philosophers whose aesthetic views it details, and the traces of their philosophical positions that have repeatedly been detected in the Cours de linguistique générale.
1978 “Taine and Saussure”. Yale Review 681.71–81. (Repr. in From Locke to Saussure: Essays on the study of language and intellectual history, 56–65. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press; London: Athlone 1982.)
Bergounioux, Gabriel
1999 “La langue et le cerveau”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 511.165–184.
Bergounioux, Gabriel
2001a “Le langage et le cerveau: la localisation de la faculté du langage et l’étude des aphasies”. History of the Language Sciences: An international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present ed. by Sylvain Auroux, E. F. K. Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe & Kees Versteegh, vol. II1, pp. 1692–1706. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Bergounioux, Gabriel
2001b “Endophasie et linguistique”. La parole intérieure ed. by Gabriel Bergounioux, (= special issue of Langue Française no. 132), 106–124. Paris.
Bopp, Franz
1839[1838]Die Celtischen Sprachen in ihrem Verhältnisse zum Sanskrit, Zend, Griechischen, Lateinischen, Germanischen, Litthauischen und Slawischen. Berlin: Ferdinand Dümmler.
Candaux, Jean-Daniel
1975 “Ferdinand de Saussure linguiste à quatorze ans et demi”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 291.7–12. [Pages 8 and 10 reproduce Saussure’s letter to Pictet of 17 Aug. (1872); page 9 consists of a facsimile of the concluding page.]
Chiss, Jean-Louis & Christian Puech
1987Fondations de la linguistique: Études d’histoire et d’épistémologie. Bruxelles: De Boeck Université.
Cifali, Mireille
1985 “Une glossolalie et ses savants: Elise Muller, alias Hélène Smith”. La linguistique fantastique ed. by Sylvain Auroux, Jean-Claude Chevalier, Nicole Jacques-Chaquin & Christiane Marchello-Nizia, 238–244. Paris: Denöel.
Crossley, Ceri
1983 “The Aesthetic Thought of Adolphe Pictet”. Swiss-French Studies 41.42–51.
De Mauro, Tullio
1972 See Saussure (1916).
Egger, Victor
1881La Parole intérieure: Essai de psychologie descriptive. Paris: G. Baillière.
Engler, Rudolf
1968–1974 See Saussure (1968–1974).
Flournoy, Théodore
1900Des Indes à la planète Mars: Étude sur un cas de somnambulisme avec glossolalie. 3rd ed. Genève: A. Eggimann.
Harpham, Geoffrey Galt
2002Language Alone: The critical fetish of modernity. London & New York: Routledge.
Henry, Victor
1896Antinomies linguistiques. Paris: F. Alcan.
Hutton, Christopher M. & John E. Joseph
1998 “Back to Blavatsky: The impact of theosophy on modern linguistics”. Language and Communication 181.181–204.
Joseph, John E.
1988 “Saussure’s Meeting with Whitney, Berlin, 1879”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 421.205–214.
Joseph, John E.
1996 “ ‘Undoubtedly a Powerful Influence’: Victor Henry’s Antinomies linguistiques (1896), with an annotated translation of the first chapter”. Language and Communication 161.117–144.
Forthcoming a. “The Linguistic Sign”. Cambridge Companion to Saussure ed. by Carol Sanders Cambridge Cambridge University Press
Joseph, John E.
Forthcoming b. “Les affinités psychologiques de Victor Henry”. V. Henry: Linguistique et partages disciplinaires à la fin du XIXe siècle en France ed. by Christian Puech Leuven Peeters
Koerner, E. F. K.
1973Ferdinand de Saussure: Origin and Development of his Linguistic Thought in Western Studies of Language. Braunschweig: F. Vieweg & Sohn.
Koerner, E. F. K.
1984 “French Influences on Saussure”. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne de Linguistique 291.20–41. (Repr. in Koerner 1988: 67–88.)
1987Introduction to « Aimez-moi comme je vous aime »: 190 lettres de G. H. Dufour à A. Pictet ed. by Jean-Jacques Langendorf, 13–128. Vienna: Karolinger.
Lepschy, Giulio
1974 “Saussure e gli spiriti”. Studi saussuriani per Robert Godel ed. by René Amacker, Tullio De Mauro & Luis J. Prieto, 181–200. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Olender, Maurice
1994[1989]Les langues du Paradis: Aryens et Sémites – un couple providentiel. Rev., expanded ed. Paris: Gallimard/Le Seuil. (Engl. transl. by Arthur Goldhammer of rev. ed., Languages of Paradise: Aryans and Semites, a match made in heaven, New York: The Other Press 2002.)
Pictet, Adolphe
1837De l’affinité des langues celtiques avec le sanscrit. Paris: B. Duprat. (Repr. in Celtic Linguistics, 1700–1850 ed. by Daniel R. Davis, vol. 71, pt. 1, London & New York: Routledge 2000.)
Pictet, Adolphe
1838Une course à Chamounix: Conte fantastique. Paris: B. Duprat. (Repr., together with George Sand’s Xe Lettre d’un Voyageur and a preface by Paul Alexandre, Geneva: Georg 1989.)
Pictet, Adolphe
1856Du beau, dans la nature, l’art et la poésie: Études esthétiques. Paris & Geneva: J. Cherbuliez. (Repr., Boston Elibron Classics 2001.)
Pictet, Adolphe
1859–63Les origines indo-européennes, ou les Aryas primitifs: Essai de paléontologie linguistique. 21 vols. Paris & Geneva: J. Cherbuliez. (2nd ed., 31 vols., Paris: Sandoz & Fischbacher 1877.)
Pourtalès, Guy de
1925La vie de Franz Liszt. Paris: Gallimard.
Prichard, James Cowles
1831The Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, proved by a comparison of their dialects with the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages. Oxford: Printed by S. Collingwood for J. and A. Arch, Cornhill, London.
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1878Review of Pictet 1877 [1859–1863]. Journal de Genève17, 19 & 25April. (Repr. in Recueil des publications scientifiques de Ferdinand de Saussure, Geneva: Sonor, Lausanne: Payot, Heidelberg: C. Winter 1922, pp. 391–402.) [All material cited is from the article of 17April.]
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1916Cours de linguistique générale. Ed. by Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye with the collaboration of Albert Riedlinger. Paris & Lausanne: Payot. (2nd ed. 1922 Annotated ed. by Tullio De Mauro, Paris: Payot 1972 Critical ed. see Saussure 1968–1974 Engl. transl., Course in General Linguistics, by Wade Baskin, New York: Philosophical Press 1959.)
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1960 “Souvenirs de F. de Saussure concernant sa jeunesse et ses études”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 171.12–25. [Written 1903.]
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1968–1974Cours de linguistique générale. Édition critique de Rudolf Engler. Tome I1 1968; Tome II1, fascicule 4 1974 Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. [= CLG/E]
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1978[1872] “Essai pour réduire les mots du Grec, du Latin & de l’Allemand à un petit nombre de racines”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 321.77–101. [Preceded by an introduction by Boyd Davis (73–76).]
Saussure, Ferdinand de
2002Écrits de linguistique générale. Ed. by Simon Bouquet & Rudolf Engler with the collaboration of Antoinette Weil. Paris: Gallimard.
Schmitter, Peter
1982 “Kunst und Sprache: Über den Zusammenhang von Sprachphilosophie und Ästhetik bei Wilhelm von Humboldt”. Sprachwissenschaft 71.40–57.
Sully, James
1891 [1884]Outlines of Psychology, with special reference to the theory of education. 7th ed. London & New York: Longmans, Green & Co.
Sully, James
1895Studies of Childhood. London: Longmans, Green & Co..
Taine, Hippolyte
1858Essais de critique et d’histoire. Paris: Hachette.
Taine, Hippolyte
1863–4Histoire de la littérature anglaise. 41 vols. Paris: Hachette.
Taine, Hippolyte
1866Nouveaux essais de critique et d’histoire. Paris: Hachette.
Taine, Hippolyte
1867De l’idéal dans l’art. Paris: G. Baillière.
Taine, Hippolyte
1871De l’intelligence. 21 vols. Paris: Hachette.
Cited by
Cited by 8 other publications
Chidichimo, Alessandro
2016. Variantes saussuriennes : écriture, recherche, style dans les manuscrits de Ferdinand de Saussure1. Recherches sémiotiques 34:1-2-3 ► pp. 113 ff.
2012. Les « Souvenirs » de Saussure revisités. Langages n° 185:1 ► pp. 125 ff.
Rosendal, Søren
2021. How to Make Content out of Form: Towards a Hegelian-Saussurean Theory of Non-Linear Structures of Possibility. Hegel Bulletin 42:2 ► pp. 227 ff.
Silverstein, Michael
2015. How language communities intersect: Is “superdiversity” an incremental or transformative condition?. Language & Communication 44 ► pp. 7 ff.
[no author supplied]
2007. References. In Linguistics in a Colonial World, ► pp. 172 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 february 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.