Identities, differences, and analogies: The problem Saussure could not solve

Roy Harris
University of Oxford
Summary

This paper examines the problem of differential identification as posed in Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale. The solution proposed by Ducrot seems unlikely to have been Saussure’s own and would result in recognizing a proliferation of variants for every sign in the system. Saussure’s analogy with handwriting appears to provide a more promising line of approach, but in the end leads to no less intractable difficulties.

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References

Ducrot, Oswald
1968 Le structuralisme en linguistique. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Saussure, Ferdinand de
1916 Cours de linguistique générale. Publié par Charles Bally et Albert Sechehaye, avec la collaboration de Albert Riedlinger. Lausanne & Paris: Payot. (2nd, corrected ed., Paris: Payot 1922 [with changed pagination]; recent reprint, Paris: Payot 1995.) (CLG)Google Scholar
1968 Cours de linguistique générale. Édition critique par Rudolf Engler, Tome I. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. (CLG/E)Google Scholar
1993 Le troisième Cours de linguistique générale (1910–1911). D’après les cahiers d’Émile Constantin. Édition française de Eisuke Komatsu. English translation by Roy Harris. Oxford & New York: Pergamon Press. (CLG3)Google Scholar