Editing Course in General Linguistics (section)

==Language versus speech: the speech circuit==

[[File:Saussure-cours-p-027.png|thumb|Illustration from the book.]]

A core task of Saussure's ''Course in General Linguistics'' is to define the subject matter of general linguistics. To do this, a definition of 'language' is required. Saussure distinguishes between language (''la langue'') and speech (''la parole'') introducing his concept of the 'speech circuit' (''le circuit de la parole''). The speech circuit emerges when at least two persons (A and B in the picture) interact verbally. It consists of two physical elements: the ''[[brain]]'', representing the personal-psychological aspect of speaking; and ''[[speech]]'', which is the result of the vocal organs producing [[sound waves]]. Third, ''[[language]]'' (not visible in the picture), with its rules, arises from the speech circuit socially and historically as a non-physical phenomenon. However, Saussure considers it "concrete" and not an abstraction, making language the suitable subject of linguistics as a [[natural science]]. 

The rules of language are gradually learned by the child, but adult perceptions of language vary to some degree. Saussure explains that 

:"Among all the individuals that are linked together by speech, some sort of average will be set up : all will reproduce—not exactly of course, but approximately—the same signs united with the same concepts."

Beginning with the Greek word ''semîon'' meaning "sign", Saussure proposes a new science of [[semiology]]: "a science that studies the life of signs within [[society]]". However, based on [[William Dwight Whitney]]'s ''The Life and Growth of Language'' (1875), Saussure emphasizes that the concept of 'life' is in this context metaphorical and not biological. Saussure does not engage in the research of any other signs than linguistic ones, but the idea of social interaction being based on sign systems was later extensively exploited by the [[Structuralism|structuralists]].<ref name="Blackburn">[[Simon Blackburn|Blackburn, Simon]], ed. 2008. "Structuralism." In ''[[Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy]]'' (2nd rev. ed.). Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-954143-0}}. p. 353.</ref>

Cultural historian Egbert Klautke notes that Saussure borrowed his language-versus-speech distinction from his teacher [[Heymann Steinthal]], who proposed [[Völkerpsychologie]]. In this concept, language is a part of the ''spirit of the nation'' or [[Volksgeist]]. Saussure advocates the commonly accepted view of his time.<ref>Klautke, Egbert. 2013. ''Mind Of The Nation Völkerpsychologie in Germany, 1851-1955''. Berghahn.</ref> This [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivist]] view became later known as the [[standard social science model]] (SSSM), thus also representing the most common understanding of culture in contemporary [[sociology]].<ref>Scott, John. 2005. ''Social Theory: Central Issues in Sociology''. Sage.</ref> What is special in Saussure's treatise is his theory that social behavior is symbolic or ''semiological,'' consisting of socially regulated combinations of [[Sign (linguistics)|sign]]s. Based on the ''Course'', linguistics is a sub-field of social and cultural studies, and these belong to the sphere of semiology, the study of sign-systems. Semiology itself is a type of [[systems theory]].

Saussure explains further that language arises as a well-defined homogeneous object from the heterogeneous mass of speech facts. Speech is many-sided and heterogeneous because it belongs partly to the individual. Language is a self-contained whole: it is fully social and cannot be changed by the individual. Language is not complete in any speaker: it is a product that is passively assimilated by the individual. It exists only within a collective. Language is "a system of signs that express ideas". Through the interaction of language and speech, however, concepts (the ''signified'' part of the sign), are likewise founded on social contract.

To explain how the social solidification of language comes about, Saussure proposes the notion of individual speaking. Speaking is willful and intentional. While individual speaking is [[heterogeneous]], that is to say composed of unrelated or differing parts or elements (relating to 'external' or [[Interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary]] linguistics), language is [[wikt:Homogeneous|homogeneous]]{{mdash}}a system of signs composed of the union of meanings and "sound images". Therefore, as the core of linguistic inquiry can be isolated focusing on the self-contained, non-physiological system of signs, which Saussure calls language, it is this that general linguistics focuses on since it allows an investigative [[methodology]] that is "scientific" in the sense of systematic inquiry. General linguistics is also analogous with biology to the extent that linguistic forms—like organisms—are analyzed anatomically (as in [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]]).  

In practice, Saussure proposes that general linguistics consists of the analysis of language itself by way of [[semantics]], [[phonology]], morphology, [[lexicology]], and [[grammar]]. Moreover, general or internal linguistics is ''informed'' by the related disciplines of external linguistics such as [[Anthropological linguistics|anthropological]] and archaeological linguistics. While language is the ultimate object of research, it must be studied through speech, which provides the research material. For practical reasons, linguists mostly use texts to analyse speech to uncover the systemic properties of language.