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Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist who laid the foundation

on the ideas of structure in the study of language. His Book Course in
General Linguistics that was published in 1916 has detailed all that he
claimed to be his views. In his book Saussure shows us a clear reaction
against many of the ideas raised and he emphasizes the importance of
seeing language as a living phenomenon as against the historical view, of
studying speech, of analysing the underlying system of a language in order
to demonstrate an integral structure, and of placing language firmly in the
social milieu. Saussures theoretical ideas are a must read and his influence
has been unparalleled in European Linguistics since and, it had a major
formative role to play in the shaping of linguistic thoughts in Europe.
Saussures Object of Study theorised his structuralist view of language and
shows how his essay forms the basis of structuralist theory. Saussure
equipped his essay with a theory and a method of linguistic analysis from
the structuralist point of view.
Saussure envisaged langage to be composed of two aspects- the
language system and the act of speaking. Langage is that faculty of human
speech that is present in all human being due to heredity, and it requires the
correct environmental stimuli for proper development. It is our facility to
talk to each other which Saussure has infused in his work. Saussure also
argues strongly that the characteristics of the system of language are really
present in the brain, and are not simply abstractions. It is something which
the individual speaker can make use of but cannot affect by itself. It is a
corporate and social phenomenon. Saussure in the very beginning of the
essay claims that the linguistic study cannot be judged from the study of
other sciences. Linguistic study is completely a different process. In

linguistic a particular object of study may have several series of different

things- the sound, the idea, the derivation- to light up after study. Hence
Saussure says that the object of study cannot be at the first to the view
point. It is the viewpoint that creates the object of study.The linguistic
phenomena can be always found in bi-complimentary facets which are
dependent on one another. That is, the perception of the ear of the
articulated syllables as the auditory impressions cannot be the sounds in
questions that come to be existed with the vocal organs. Speech sound is no
equal to language and they do not exist independently and are mere
instruments of thoughts whereas, language is completely an individual
aspect. Saussure emphasis on these two distinctions comes at this point of
his analysis. The language system as Saussure admits should be studied
independently. He cites the example of Dead language that even though it is
no longer to be spoken, however, we can acquaint to its linguistic
structures. The language is incongruous and its systems are of similar
nature. The language is a structured system and it differs from speech.
Saussure has cited a example of a man who has lost his power of speech
can also grasp the language system through vocal signs by which he can
understand.
Saussure in his essay discusses the linguistic structures as only to be a
part of language even though it is an integral part of it. The structure of a
language is both the social product and the body of necessary conventions
adopted by society to enable members of society to use their language
faculty. It comprises in various domains and it is purely physical,
psychological and physiological. It is for the individual and for the society.
The language faculty of the both rest upon the structure of the language and
there cannot be a proper classification for that as such language has no
proper distinctions. The linguistic structures are that faculty in the study of
language by which the articulating words, natural or not, are put in use only
by means of linguistic instruments that are created and provided by society.
The language itself is a structured system and a self contained whole and
principle of classification.

Saussure in his essay mentions the role of speech circuits of how

speeches are exchanged from one individual to another. He gave a proper
illustration of it with a proper diagram. This he calls purely a physical
process. In order to understand this tract one must leave the individual act,
which is merely language in its young stage, and he proceeds to consider it
a social phenomenon. If done so all individuals will linguistically link
among themselves and all individuals will reproduce whether it may or may
not be that exact but will be almost the same signs related to the same
concept. Saussure says that the language cannot be the function of the
speaker but it is a passively registered product of the individual whereas,
speech is the act of the will and of intelligence of the individual. In his
essay, Saussure also speaks about the evolution of language from times.
There are some words which are rarely spoken in our daily contemporary
word and usage of such words in our day to day life is kind of absurdity. So
Saussure argues that language and linguistics goes on evolution from time to
time. It is an institution of the present and of the past at any given time.
Saussure also notes on the sciences that claims to language as falling under
their domain. But Saussure says that their methods are different and are not
as it were needed. He says that the linguists should only take up his primary
concern in studying language and to manifest all other concerns with it.
Saussure also speaks about the question of the vocal apparatus and he
says it a secondary one in comparison to language. Linguists disagree to the
notion about the vocal apparatus and it is not clear that the vocal apparatus is
solely made for our speaking as that our legs are made for walking. Saussure
cites the example of Whitney who regards this vocal apparatus is that we uses
for our linguistic purposes.
The contribution of Saussure in the concept of language system is the
main theoretical contribution and many linguists feel that it was this facet
of his thought which had the most profound influence on subsequent
scholarship. His view of a language as a system of mutually defining
entities is a conception which underlay his works to philology. It is
fundamental to his account to his structure in language. Any sentence, for

Saussure, is a sequence of signs, and each signs contributes something to

the meaning of the whole, and each contrasting with all other signs in the
language. The sign, for Saussure is the basic element of a language. A
sequence of a syntagmatic relationship- which is a linear relationship
between the signs are present in the sentence. The sign is the basic unit of
communication and it is a mental construct. Saussure accepted that there
must be two sides of meaning that posits a natural relationship between
words and things. His labels for the two sides were signifier and signified,
one which the thing which signifies and the other the thing that is signified.
It can also be taken as the concept and the acoustic image. The signified is
thus always something of an interpretation that is added to the signifier. He
calls this relationship a linguistic sign. This linguistic signs are not
abstractions, although they are essentially psychological. Linguistic signs
are, so to speak, tangible and writing can fix them in conventional images,
whereas it would be impossible to capture the acts of speech in all their
details. When we say signified, this do not exist in sensible form, it is a
thought and creation of mental image that the signifier has signified.
Saussure's main concern is linguistic sign does not link a name and a thing;
instead it links a concept and an acoustic image. That is, language is more
than just a list of terms that correspond to things. An acoustic image is the
mental image of a name that allows a language-user to say the name.
However, a linguistic sign links signifier and signified. A signifier is the
sound we say when we say an object, and the signified is the concept of that
said object. The said object is the sign. In Saussure's theory of linguistics, the
signifier is the sound and the signified is the thought. The linguistic sign is
neither conceptual nor phonic, neither thought nor sound. Rather, it is the
whole of the link that unites sound and idea, signifier and signified. The
properties of the sign are by nature abstract, and are not concrete. He says
that the linguistic principles operate on two principles. The first principle is
that the linguistic sign is arbitrary as there is no interior link between the
concept and the acoustic image. The second is that the signifier being
auditory in nature unfolds in time only. When the signifier and the signified

are joined together they produce a sign which is of positive order, and
concrete rather than abstract.
The idea of structuralist theory has achieved the status largely on the
account of Saussure Object of Study which made it the major linguistic
theme of the later years after his death. The linguists were also much
influenced by the notions of Saussure, although less directly. The essay
forms the basis of a concept of language as a vast network of structures and
systems was emphasised on the syntagmatic relationships of the Saussurean
emphasis in structures which was taken as the keynote of a number of
theories of language and which underlies many other linguistic approaches
to language. The central tenet of structuralism is that the phenomena of
human life, whether language or media, are not intelligible except through
their network of relationships, making the sign and the system (or structure)
in which the sign is embedded primary concepts. As such, a sign -- for
instance, a word -- gets its meaning only in relation to or in contrast with
other signs in a system of signs. Thus we can analyse that Saussures
Object of Study has its basis of the structuralism theory.
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