Baskin Wade - Course in General Linguistics

Course in General Linguistics

Course in General Linguistics

Ferdinand de Saussure

Translated by Wade Baskin

Edited by Perry Meisel and Haun Saussy

Columbia University Press

New York

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New York Chichester, West Sussex

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Copyright 1959 The Philosophical Library, Inc., 15 East 40th St.,

New York City

New material copyright 2011 Columbia University Press

All rights reserved

E-ISBN 978-0-231-52795-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Saussure, Ferdinand de, 18571913.

[Cours de linguistique generale. English]

Course in general linguistics / Ferdinand de Saussure ; translated by

Wade Baskin ; edited by Perry Meisel and Haun Saussy.

p. cm.

Translation of Cours de linguistique generale.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-231-15726-1 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-15727-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-231-52795-8 (e-book)

1. Language and languages. 2. Comparative linguistics. I. Baskin, Wade. II. Meisel, Perry. III. Saussy, Haun, 1960 IV. Title.

P121.S363 2011

410dc22

2010053912

A Columbia University Press E-book.

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Contents

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS

A new English text of Saussures Course in General Linguistics (1916) is long overdue. Wade Baskins splendid original translation (1959) is now unavailable, and a proper edition of the Course in English has never been done. Saussure was granted full-scale academic editions first in Italian (1967) and German (1968, 1974), and, with a French translation of de Mauros apparatus, at last in French (de Mauro 1972). Baskins modest translation was his doctoral dissertation at Columbia (1956) and sports only a brief translators introduction appended to the unornamented first French text of 1916, which contains only the brief introductory commentary by those students of Saussure who assembled the text of the Course from the notes of his lectures (Bally and Sechehaye 1916). Roy Harriss English translation of 1983 also presents Saussures text unornamented except for polemical annotations.

Our labors have been divided as follows: Perry Meisel has written the principal parts of the introduction. Haun Saussy has provided a sketch of Saussures life and described in detail the many versions of the Course discovered in other sources since 1916, including the consequences each one has for understanding, and misunderstanding, what Saussure has to say. Saussys notes to this new edition widen the traditional focus on Saussure as linguist to include his epochal influence on the human sciences as a whole. An annotated textual note follows this preface outlining reference protocols for this new edition.

We wish to thank our editor, Jennifer Crewe; Jonathan Culler; Regeen Runes Najar; and Wade Baskin Jr. Thanks also to Natalie Adler, Naomi McDougall Jones, Michael Miller, Rachel Tanner, and Lindsay Welsch. Thanks to Chris Gisonny for preparation of the manuscript.

The following editions of work by Ferdinand de Saussure are cited. Each is preceded by an abbreviation and date of first publication:

Signifier and Signified: Reclaiming Saussures Legacy

This new edition of Saussures Course in General Linguistics (1916) restores the Saussure that generations of English readers grew up on: Wade Baskins 1959 translation. In addition to its inherent elegance, Baskins translation of the lectures Saussure gave at the end of his life at the University of Geneva is indispensable for a very particular reason, one that Roy Harriss 1983 translation wholly obscures: the rendition of Saussures terms signifiant and signifi (CLG