Central Concepts of Saussure: Language as a system
System and Difference
The scientific approach to a system would take for granted that its elements would correspond to an organised and integrated unity (or totality), such that each element in the system can be located in its place on the web of relationships between elements.
Even the sub-atomic universe has elements. Once it was thought that the atom was the smallest indivisible element. (As we all now know, by splitting the atom the human species discovered how to make their biggest explosion so far--another step towards their very own big bang.) But with Saussure’s system the elements themselves are impossible to locate because, as he says, "language is a system of differences with no positive terms». Language is a system of contrasts which in each case try to set up a new meaning by means of difference in the line up of elements.
Language as a system
We have discussed thus far two basic concepts concerning human language: langue et parole. In addition to this dichotomy, there is also a concept named langage: faculté générale de puvoir s’exprimer aux moyens des signes. At macro level we have langue and at micro level parole. The capability to make use of a communicative system is langage in this case. This sytem contains arbitrary signs, which bear a conventional reference or construct an acknowledged meaning.
The system is coherently filled with meaning bearing signs, which form a basis for parole. These signs are elements, which are also internally in conceptual relation with one another.
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUYrAvsX9Tc
Language as a system
• In this sense, we may define the language system as an integrated whole, in which all parts are in a structural relation with one another and are there to produce a function (i.e. meaning). Parts fall under a structure, which is in turn a form of interconnection between parts under the whole. Structure is a way of conglomeration for parts in the whole in order to produce a targeted meaning.
• Language system can be reconstructed on the basis of all utterances, which have been produced so far. However, the system is not a simple accumulation of all produced utterances. What is crucial in this case is to focus on those utterances, which have never been produced till now. In this regard, the language system is a productive mechanism, which paves way for unspoken ideas. This is a main starting point of structuralist linguists and structuralism.
Language as a system
Structuralism as a philosophical stance and structuralists are interested in the interrelationship between units (also called surface phenomena) and abstract rules (the ways that units can be put together). In language, units are words and the rules which are the forms of grammar (structures within the grammar), which systematically organize words. In different languages, the grammar rules are different, as are the words, but the structure is still the same in all languages: words are put together within a grammatical system to produce a meaning.
However, in some languages structures may be similar, in others they may be different. Or in some languages a structure may be absent. For instance, gender structure as a form does not exist in a language such as Turkish.
Language as a system
Structuralist notions on units and rules (parts and structures; principles and parameters):
Structuralists believe that the underlying structures which organize units and rules into meaningful systems, are generated by the human mind itself, and not by sense perception. As such, the mind is itself a structuring mechanism which looks through units and files them according to rules.
Thus, parts may vary across languages in formal terms. However, structures that generate meaning must be universal in abstract sense.
The absence of some structures does not change the universality of meaning generating mechanisms in all human languages.
Language as a system
Structuralist analysis posits these meaning generating structures as universal.
Every human mind in every culture at every point in history has used some sort of (grammatical) structuring principle to organize and understand cultural phenomena.
Every human culture has some sort of language, which has the basic structure of all language: words/phonemes are combined according to a grammar of rules to produce meaning.
Every human culture similarly has some sort of social organization. All of these organizations are governed, according to structuralist analyses, by structures which are universal.
Language as a system
If we have to give a more formal definition in a Piagetian sense;
A structure is any conceptual system that has the following three properties:
Wholeness, which means that the system functions as a whole, not just as a collection of independent parts. It moves as whole, stops as a whole.
Transformation, which means that the system is not static, but capable of change.
New units can enter the system, but when they do they're governed by the rules of the system.
Self-Regulation, which is related to the idea of transformation. You can add elements to the system, but you cannot change the basic structure of the system no matter what you add to it. The transformations of a system never lead to anything outside the system.
Language as a system
To sum it all up in a nutshell, structuralism according to Saussure is based upon three assumptions:
The systematic nature of language, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The relational conception of the elements of language, where linguistic entities are defined in relationships of combination and contrast to one another.
The arbitrary nature of linguistic elements, where they are defined in terms of the function and purpose they serve rather than in terms of their inherent qualities.
References
• https://
monoskop.org/images/6/69/Holdcroft_David_Saussure_Signs_System_and_Arb itrariness.pdf
• https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/structuralism.htm
• https://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/structurallinguistics.htm
• https://www.slideshare.net/perilousroddyk/structuralism-and-saussure
