�Negativity� And The Construction Of General Linguistics:Exploration Of Saussure's Philosophy Of Language

This research is a study of negativity in Saussure's conception from the perspective of philosophy of language.In this study,negativity is regarded as a way of defining the meaning or value of a linguistic sign from the perspective of philosophy of language.It means that the meaning of a sign is determined by excluding and negating all the other signs in the language system.In previous studies,negativity is researched mainly from the perspective of general linguistics,specifically from three aspects: difference and opposition,syntagmatic and associative relations,and the realizations of difference in the language system.Though negativity with its uniqueness has aroused many scholars' research interest and has got plenty of interpretations,few studies have been conducted from the perspective of philosophy of language,especially within the theoretical framework of characteristics of Saussure's philosophy of language.Therefore,it is of great significance to conduct a research of negativity in Saussure's conception from the perspective of philosophy of language.This study explores Saussure's negativity on the basis of Course in General Linguistics,Writings in General Linguistics and other related works from the perspective of philosophy of language.In this study,three questions are dealt with: 1)what is negativity in Saussure's conception;2)how negativity is realized at different levels of the language system through a detailed analysis of Course in General Linguistics,Writings in General Linguistics and other related works;3)why Saussure has chosen negativity as his approach to construct his theory of general linguistics.This study is conducted within the framework of Huo's study of characteristics of Saussure's philosophy of language which claims that Saussure has established a new paradigm of philosophy of language different from the analytic philosophy of language.The characteristics of this new paradigm are characterized first by cutting off the link between language and world.And then on the basis of �system� as the logical starting point,and such core concepts as �arbitrariness� and �value�,using�negativity� as his approach,Saussure has established a signification-based meaning theory of linguistic signs.Within this framework,the language system is classified into the phonetic level,the semantic level and the formal level to provide room for the analysis of the realizations of negativity at different levels of the language system.And after the analysis the findings are as follows.Firstly,based on Huo's definition,its philosophical basis,and the characteristics of Saussure's general linguistics,the author attempts to redefine Saussure's negativity as defining the meaning of a sign through excluding and negating all the other signs that are standing in the syntagmatic and associative opposition to it.Secondly,through an analysis of negativity at different levels of the language system,we have found that the value of a sign at the phonetic level,the semantic level and the formal level is confirmed by excluding and negating all the other signs within the framework of syntagmatic and associative relations.Thirdly,the nature of Saussure's philosophy of language justifies the necessity of choosing negativity to construct his theory of general linguistics.That is to say,since the link between language and the outside world has been cut off,the meaning of a sign can not be determined by anything outside the language system through the referential relation as the referential view of word meaning,but can only be identified and demonstrated within the language system.