The innovative Saussurian linguistics and the Lithuanian language

Abstract

This article aims to show what is innovative about Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic theory, while situating it in the broader intellectual environment of XIX^th-century linguistic research. Our intention is to complexify the images associated with this author whose role is oftentimes reduced to epithets such as “father of linguistics”, “founder of structuralism”, or whose contribution to the language studies is considered to be solely the Course in General Linguistics. Through the investigation of the texts about the Lithuanian language which were published in life, as well as a portion of the manuscript called Notes sur l’accentuation lituanienne, we present the theoretical workings of what we consider to be the core of saussurean thought, the difference. In regards to language as the object of saussurean science, the difference unfolds into three aspects: immateriality, virtuality, and relativity. After introducing these three elements of what we call the linguistics of difference in the first section of the article, we dedicate the second section to Saussure’s works on the Lithuanian language, summarizing its importance for his corpus. In the last section, we introduce the reader to the Notes sur l’accentuation lituanienne and analyze some of its theoretical innovative aspects. Thus, we hope to shift the traditional image of Ferdinand de Saussure, allowing this author-function to evoke other ways to produce knowledge in the field of linguistic studies, while bringing to light this linguist’s active participation in the historical and comparative grammar scientific community of the XIX century.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n44a1016