Abstract
In the field of biosemiotics in our time, Saussure’s theory of semiology has been dismissed for its glottocentric, anthropocentric, and dyadic characteristics and as such unsuitable for the said field. Such accusation is symptomatic of a narrow view of Saussure, which ignores the efforts he made in tackling problems concerning the unification of biology (natural sciences) and semiotics (human sciences). A broader view of Saussure, emerging from the newly-discovered orangery manuscripts along with his thought-provoking lectures, reveals that his epistemology is actually grounded upon evolutionary differences and the concept of uniformitarianism. This study points out how the network of differences, which Saussure proposes in his manuscripts, blurs disciplinary or systematic boundaries between language and nonverbal systems, and how it might serve as a framework for appreciating true analogies between natural sciences and the science of language. Moreover, Saussure’s concept of état de langue is made comprehensive in relation to appropriations of the Darwinian model and Neo-Darwinian ideas. His model of evolution is seen to have amplified the phenomenon of symbiogenesis, which is non-linear, non-adaptive, non-restrictive as regards localities, yet claims certain truths about nature and culture. All in all, this study draws attention to the implications of conceptualizing non-linear evolution within and across systems.
Keywords
This contribution is a slightly modified part of an already published article (cf. in Semiotica, 2011, 185[1–4], pp. 51–77).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Engler 2004, p. 48.
- 6.
Amsterdamska 1987.
- 7.
Engler 2004, p. 47–48.
- 8.
Saussure 1967, “Preface”.
- 9.
Saussure 2006, p. 7.
- 10.
Jakobson 1966 [1990].
- 11.
Saussure 1967, p. 86.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Saussure 2006, pp. 22, 24.
- 15.
Ibid., p. 59; Saussure 1993, pp. 140a–143a.
- 16.
Saussure 2006, p. 43.
- 17.
Ibid., pp. 22, 50–51, 60.
- 18.
Ibid., p. 43.
- 19.
Ibid., pp. 47–51, 56, 59, 64.
- 20.
Camara 1995, p. 128.
- 21.
Saussure 2006, p. 111.
- 22.
Ibid., p. 59.
- 23.
Saussure 1996, p. 2.
- 24.
Ibid., p. 27–28.
- 25.
Ibid., p. 90–91.
- 26.
Saussure 2006, pp. 42–43.
- 27.
Saussure 1996, pp. 63, 90–91.
- 28.
Saussure 2006, p. 60.
- 29.
McCauley 2007.
- 30.
- 31.
- 32.
Gontier 2006b.
- 33.
Koerner 1983, pp. 42–44.
- 34.
Ibid., p. 45.
- 35.
Ibid., pp. 20–21.
- 36.
Ibid., pp. 47–48.
- 37.
Ibid., pp. 23–24, 25–26.
- 38.
Ibid., pp. 64–65.
- 39.
Saussure 2006, p. 3.
- 40.
Ibid., p. 77.
- 41.
Ibid., p. 4.
- 42.
Ibid., p. 110.
- 43.
Ibid., pp. 42–43.
- 44.
Gontier 2006a, pp. 211–213.
- 45.
Gontier 2006b, pp. 11–12.
- 46.
Saussure 2006, pp. 115–116.
- 47.
Saussure 1993, pp. 21a–23a.
- 48.
Ibid., pp. 11a, 22a.
- 49.
Ibid., pp. xxi.
- 50.
Ibid., pp. 39a–40a; Saussure 1959, p. 210.
- 51.
Saussure 1993, p. 23a.
- 52.
Saussure 1959, pp. 206–208.
- 53.
Saussure 1993, pp. 33a–34a.
- 54.
Gould 1977 [2007, pp. 150–152].
- 55.
- 56.
Simpson and Weiner 1989, s.v. “evolution”.
- 57.
- 58.
Deely 2004, pp. 2–5.
- 59.
Sebeok 1998, p. 32.
- 60.
- 61.
Krampen et al. 1981 [1987, p. 244–245].
References
Alinei, M. (2006). Darwinism, traditional linguistics and the new Palaeolithic Continuity Theory of language evolution. In Gontier, van Bendegem, Aerts (Eds.), 2006, pp. 121–147.
Amsterdamska, O. (1987). Schools of thought: The development of linguistics from Bopp to Saussure. Dordrecht/Norwell: D. Reidel/Kluwer.
Auroux, S. (2007). Introduction: Le paradigme naturaliste. Histoire Épistémologie Langage, 29(2), 5–15.
Barbieri, M. (2003). The organic codes: An introduction to semantic biology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barbieri, M. (2008). Biosemiotics: A new understanding of life. Naturwissenschaften, 95(7), 577–599.
Bouissac, P. (2004). Saussure’s legacy in semiotics. In C. Sanders (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Saussure (pp. 240–260). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bouquet, S. (1997). Introductions à la lecture de Saussure. Paris: Éditions Payot/Rivages.
Camara, J. B. de (1995). Saussure, chess and time: The role of an analogy in a scientific revolution. Lisboa: Instituto Superior De Ciencias Socias E Politicas/Universidade Tecnica De Lisboa.
Chebanov, S. V. (1998). Totality of semiosphere. Sign Systems Studies, 26, 417–424.
Danesi, M. (2004). A basic course in anthropological linguistics. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Deely, J. (2004). Thomas Albert Sebeok, “Biologist Manqué”: Memorial essay for 2004 Congress of International Association for Semiotic Studies in Lyon. Unpublished Paper, 10 pages.
Engler, R. (2004). The making of the Cours de linguistique générale. In C. Sanders (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Saussure (pp. 47–58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gontier, N. (2006a). Evolutionary epistemology and the origin and evolution of language: Taking symbiogenesis seriously. In Gontier, van Bendegem, Aerts (Eds.), 2006, pp. 195–226.
Gontier, N. (2006b). Introduction to evolutionary epistemology, language and culture. In Gontier, van Bendegem, Aerts (Eds.), 2006, pp. 1–32.
Gontier, N., Bendegem, J. P. van, & Diederik A. (Eds.) (2006). Evolutionary epistemology, language and culture: A non-adaptationist, systems theoretical approach. Dordrecht: Springer.
Gould, S. J. (1977 [2007]). Ever since Darwin: Reflections on natural history. New York/London: W.W. Norton.
Harris, R. (2002). Ferdinand de Saussure, “Écrits de linguistique générale”. Times Literary Supplement, 5182 (26 July 2002), (p. 30).
Hoffmeyer, J. (1993 [1996]). Signs of meaning in the universe. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hurford, J. R. (1992). An approach to the phylogeny of the language faculty. In J. A. Hawkins & M. Gell-Mann (Eds.), The evolution of human languages (SFI studies in the sciences of complexity. Proceedings, Vol. XI, pp. 273–303). Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Hurford, J. R. (2007). Why communicate? Squaring with evolutionary theory. In J. R. Hurford (Ed.), The origins of meaning: Language in the light of evolution (pp. 243–306). New York: Oxford University Press.
Jakobson, R. (1966 [1990]). Quest for the essence of language. In L. R. Waugh & M. Monville-Burston (Eds.). On language (pp. 407–421). Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press, 1990.
Katz, G. (2008). The hypothesis of a genetic protolanguage: An epistemological investigation. Biosemiotics, 1, 57–73.
Klippi, C. (2007). La première biolinguistique. Histoire Épistémologie Langage, 29(2), 17–40.
Koerner, K. (Ed.). (1983). Linguistics and evolutionary theory: Three essays by August Schleicher, Ernst Haeckel and Wilhelm Bleek. (Amsderdam classics in linguistics, Vol. 6). Amsderdam: John Benjamins.
Krampen, M., Oehler, K., Posner, R., Sebeok, T. A. & Uexküll, T. von (Eds.). (1981 [1987]). Classics of semiotics. New York: Plenum Press.
Kull, K. (1998). Semiotic ecology: Different natures in the semiosphere. Sign Systems Studies, 26, 344–371.
Kull, K. (2003). Thomas A. Sebeok and biology: Building biosemiotics. Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 10(1), 47–60.
McCauley, R. N. (2007). Enriching philosophical models of cross-scientific relations: Incorporating diachronic theories. In M. Schouten & H. Looren de Jong (Eds.), The matter of the mind: Philosophical essays on psychology, neuroscience, and reduction (pp. 199–223). Oxford: Blackwell.
Nerlich, B. (1989). The evolution of the concept of “linguistic evolution” in the 19th and 20th century. Lingua, 77(2), 101–112.
Nöth, W. (1998). Ecosemiotics. Sign Systems Studies, 26, 332–343.
Saussure, F. de (1959). Course in general linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Saussure, F. de (1967). Cours de linguistique générale, fasc. 1 & 2. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Saussure, F. de (1993). Troisième cours de linguistique générale (1910–1911) d’après les cahiers d’Émile Constantin/Saussure’s third course of lectures on general linguistics (1910–1911) from the notebooks of Émile Constantin. Oxford: Pergamon.
Saussure, F. de (1996). Premier cours de linguistique générale (1907) d’après les cahiers d’Albert Riedlinger/Saussure’s first course of lectures on general linguistics (1907) from the notebooks of Albert Riedlinger. Oxford: Pergamon.
Saussure, F. de (2006). Writings in general linguistics. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Sebeok, T. A. (1973). Between animal and animal. Times Literary Supplement, 3734(5 October 1973), (p. 1187–1189).
Sebeok, T. A. (1976). Contributions to the doctrine of signs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Sebeok, T. A. (1998). The Estonian connection. Sign Systems Studies, 26, 20–41.
Simpson, J., & Weiner, E. (Eds.). (1989). Oxford English dictionary. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chien, JP. (2015). How Useful Is état de langue for Biosemiotics? An Exploration of Linguistic Consciousness and Evolution in F. de Saussure’s Works. In: Velmezova, E., Kull, K., Cowley, S. (eds) Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics. Biosemiotics, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20663-9_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20662-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20663-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)