On The Relationship Between Langue And Parole In Saussure’s Language Thought

Ferdinand de Saussure is the founding father of modern linguistics, structuralismand semiology. Course in General Linguistics, edited by his students and publishedposthumously, has been invaluable to the20thcentury linguistic thought. Thedistinction between langue and parole is the starting point in Saussure’s theory oflinguistics. This paper combs through previous research and tries to clarify a series ofimportant issues in this complementarity.This paper argues that the distinction between langue and parole was the resultof the fin-de-siècle zeitgeist prevalent in social sciences. This trend becomes clearwhen contemporary thinkers, Durkheim and Freud, were compared with Saussure.This paper illustrates the significance of the distinction and the methods used inapproaching the problem. It discusses the debate of form/substance in langue/parole dichotomy, mainly focusing on three classical points of view by Lyons,Derrida and Harris. This paper also tries to discuss the issue of metaphysical abysspresented by Gasparov, who connects Saussure with early Romanticism. This paperconcludes with the evaluation of the langue/parole distinction, exemplified by thepoints of view of Hjelmslev and Chomsky.