Ferdinand De Saussure
1857-1913
Swiss

Father of Moderm Linguistics

Cours de Linguistique Générale
1916

Saussure established his reputation with a brilliant contribution to comparative linguistics.

He thus formalized the basic approaches to language study and asserted that the principles and methodology of each approach are distinct and mutually exclusive.

He also introduced two terms that have become common currency in linguistics—“parole,” or the speech of the individual person, and “langue,” the system underlying speech activity.

His distinctions proved to be mainsprings to productive linguistic research and can be regarded as starting points on the avenue of linguistics known as structuralism.

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary

Diachrony

Historical Linguistics

Parole

What the individual speaks

Langue

What is shared by the community

Syntax

Phonology

System of signs shared by a speech
community.

Synchrony

A point in time