Ferdinand de Saussure is hailed as the founder of modern linguistics. The course enables students to gain an enriched understanding of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics, It achieve this firstly by analyzing the key concepts of Saussure’s linguistic theory, in particular the concepts of langue and parole, signifier and signified, the arbitrary nature of the sign, and the dichotomy between synchrony and diachrony. Secondly, it explores the historical and intellectual context of the Course and examine how Saussure’s work both reflected and shaped the intellectual, cultural and political landscape, focussing on language and nationalism. With this background knowledge, students are then in a position to grasp the context of contemporary debates in linguistics and sociolinguistics, focussing on those concerning identity, agency, and notions of fluidity and indeterminacy found in approaches such as translanguaging, Southern Theory, and assemblage theory.

 

• The intellectual and political history of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics
• Key concepts in Saussurean linguistics: i) langue and parole; ii) signifier and signified; iii) the arbitrary nature of the sign; iv) the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of language
• Language and nationalism
• Linguistics and colonialism
• The politics of linguistic description
• Contemporary theoretical responses to Saussure in (socio)linguistics: i) translanguaging; ii) Southern Theory; iii) assemblage theory

The class has timetabled 2 hours per week. The initial sessions will be primarily in lecture format, in order to explain the intellectual and historical background. Later sessions will include student-led seminars and discussions. Students will be offered one-to-one consultations at appropriate points in the semester.

 

Course assessment is 100% coursework

1. in-class test (10%);
2. in-class presentation of a reading or source (20%);
3. first draft of essay or project (20%);
4. final essay or project (50%)

Students will have the opportunity to indicate their preference to opt for an essay (individual work) or a project (group work – 2 members max.) by Week 4.

 

Core reading

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1916) Cours de linguistique générale. Eds. Charles Bally

Albert Sechehaye. Paris: Payot.

Translations: Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. Eds. Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye. Trans. Wade Baskin, revised edition by Perry Meisel & Haun Saussy. NY: Columbia University Press, 2011.; OR

Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. Eds. Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye. Trans. Roy Harris. La Salle, Illinois: Open Court. 1983.

 

Topical readings

• Anderson, Benedict (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso: London.
• urora, Simone (2017) From structure to machine: Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy of linguistics. Deleuze Studies 11: 405-428.
• Deumert, Ana & Sinfree Makoni (2023) From Southern Theory to Decolonizing Sociolinguistics: Voices, Questions and Alternatives. Multilingual Matters: Jackson, TN.
• Fairclough, Norman (1991) Language and ideology. Trab. Ling. Apl. Campinas 17: 1130131.
• Gurney, L. & Demuro, E (2019) Tracing new ground, from language to languaging, and from languaging to assemblages: rethinking languaging through the multilingual and ontological turns, International Journal of Multilingualism, DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2019.1689982
• Joseph, John E. (2006) Language and Politics. Edinburgh UP: Edinburgh..
• Lähteenmäki, M. & H. Dufva, eds. (1998). On dynamics and stability:
• Saussure, Voloshinov, and Bakhtin. Dialogues on Bakhtin: Interdisciplinary Readings. University of Jyväskylä, Centre for Applied Language Studies. Jyväskylä. 52–71.
• Li Wei (2018) Translanguaging as a Practical Theory of Language Applied linguistics 39: 9-30.
• Li Wei & Ofelia García (2022) Not a first language but one repertoire: translanguaging as a decolonizing project, RELC Journal 53: 313–324.
• Thibault, Paul. (1988) Re-reading Saussure. The Dynamics of Signs in Social Life. London: Routledge.
• Yanfei Zhang & Shaojie Zhang (2014) How and why Saussure is misread in China: A historical study. Language & History 57: 149-167.

 

Other relevant texts will be assigned throughout the course.