It is argued that students of linguistics and literary studies have misread the foundational writings of Ferdinand de Saussure and thus have misunderstood the implications of treating language as a metaphors for literature. It is suggested that this misreading has been caused by the French structuralist and rationalist appropriation of Saussure's work. Several examples are presented that demonstrate that French structuralists have committed basic errors in using linguistic concepts such as syntax, semantics, and grammar. Further acts of misinterpretation have been committed against Noam Chomsky's theories of generative linguistics as well. The result of this misreading has been that students of literary studies have been exposed to one-sided representations of linguistics. Thus, it is concluded that students must be led to revisit Saussure's work to gain a critical appreciation of how it has come to inform various analogies of language to literature. (D. Ryfe in LLBA 2000, vol. 34, n. 1)