Ferdinand de Saussure Courses on General Linguistics



Ferdinand de Saussure Courses on General Linguistics

Nature of the Linguistic Sign

1. What does it mean that a language is not a nomenclature? (Para. 1)

2. What is a linguistic sign made of? (Paras. 3-4)

3. How is a sound pattern different from a sound? (Para. 4)

4. How can we know that the one element of a sign is sound pattern rather than sound? (Para 5)

5. What are the two terms corresponding to concept and sound pattern in Saussurean linguistics? (Para. 9)

First Principle: the sign is arbitrary

6. How would you be able to demonstrate the connection between signification and signal, a linguistic sign, is arbitrary? (Paras. 11-12)

7. Are non-linguistic signs arbitrary or not? (Para. 14)

8. Is a symbol an arbitrary sign or not? (Para. 15)

9. How should ‘arbitrary’ be understood in linguistics? (Para. 17)

10. What is the exceptions of the linguistic principle of sign being arbitrary? (Paras. 18-21)

Linguistic value: conceptual aspects

11. In what ways is value determined? (Paras. 35-6)

12. What does it mean that the word has not only a meaning but also a value? (Paras. 30-36)

13. Give examples that a linguistic sign has value. (Paras. 37-8)

14. Summarize the paragraph 42.

Linguistic value: Material aspects

15. What makes us to grasp sing a as a and sign b as b? (Para. 45)

16. Are linguistic signs physical or not? (Para. 48)

17. Give examples to prove the above point. (Para. 49)

18. What in writing is identical with speech? (Paras. 51-54)

The sign as a whole

19. “In the language, there only differences.” What does it mean that difference presupposes only negative terms? (Paras. 55-6)

What do diachronic developments of words demonstrate in the relationship between signification and signal? (Para. 57)

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