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How Useful Is état de langue for Biosemiotics? An Exploration of Linguistic Consciousness and Evolution in F. de Saussure’s Works

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Biosemiotic Perspectives on Language and Linguistics

Part of the book series: Biosemiotics ((BSEM,volume 13))

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.

This contribution is a slightly modified part of an already published article (cf. in Semiotica, 2011, 185[1–4], pp. 51–77).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sebeok 1976, p. 152; Hoffmeyer 1993 [1996, p. 17–18]; Nöth 1998, p. 337.

  2. 2.

    Bouissac 2004, p. 241, 256; Barbieri 2008, p. 594–596.

  3. 3.

    Barbieri 2003, p. 236–237; Kull 1998, p. 348–349 and 2003, p. 56; Chebanov 1998, p. 418.

  4. 4.

    Harris 2002; Bouquet 1997; Saussure 2006, p. xvi.

  5. 5.

    Engler 2004, p. 48.

  6. 6.

    Amsterdamska 1987.

  7. 7.

    Engler 2004, p. 47–48.

  8. 8.

    Saussure 1967, “Preface”.

  9. 9.

    Saussure 2006, p. 7.

  10. 10.

    Jakobson 1966 [1990].

  11. 11.

    Saussure 1967, p. 86.

  12. 12.

    Saussure 1967, p. 150 and 1993, p. 75a; Fig. 1.

  13. 13.

    Saussure 1967, p. 264 and 1993, p. 140a.

  14. 14.

    Saussure 2006, pp. 22, 24.

  15. 15.

    Ibid., p. 59; Saussure 1993, pp. 140a–143a.

  16. 16.

    Saussure 2006, p. 43.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., pp. 22, 50–51, 60.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., p. 43.

  19. 19.

    Ibid., pp. 47–51, 56, 59, 64.

  20. 20.

    Camara 1995, p. 128.

  21. 21.

    Saussure 2006, p. 111.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 59.

  23. 23.

    Saussure 1996, p. 2.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 27–28.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., p. 90–91.

  26. 26.

    Saussure 2006, pp. 42–43.

  27. 27.

    Saussure 1996, pp. 63, 90–91.

  28. 28.

    Saussure 2006, p. 60.

  29. 29.

    McCauley 2007.

  30. 30.

    Hurford 1992 and 2007; Danesi 2004; Alinei 2006; Katz 2008.

  31. 31.

    Nerlich 1989; Auroux 2007; Klippi 2007.

  32. 32.

    Gontier 2006b.

  33. 33.

    Koerner 1983, pp. 42–44.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., p. 45.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., pp. 20–21.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., pp. 47–48.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., pp. 23–24, 25–26.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., pp. 64–65.

  39. 39.

    Saussure 2006, p. 3.

  40. 40.

    Ibid., p. 77.

  41. 41.

    Ibid., p. 4.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., p. 110.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., pp. 42–43.

  44. 44.

    Gontier 2006a, pp. 211–213.

  45. 45.

    Gontier 2006b, pp. 11–12.

  46. 46.

    Saussure 2006, pp. 115–116.

  47. 47.

    Saussure 1993, pp. 21a–23a.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., pp. 11a, 22a.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., pp. xxi.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., pp. 39a–40a; Saussure 1959, p. 210.

  51. 51.

    Saussure 1993, p. 23a.

  52. 52.

    Saussure 1959, pp. 206–208.

  53. 53.

    Saussure 1993, pp. 33a–34a.

  54. 54.

    Gould 1977 [2007, pp. 150–152].

  55. 55.

    Saussure 1959, pp. 202–203 (lines within parentheses: Saussure 1993, p. 27a).

  56. 56.

    Simpson and Weiner 1989, s.v. “evolution”.

  57. 57.

    Gould 1977 [2007, pp. 34–38, 197–198]; Saussure 1959, pp. 192–193, 204–205.

  58. 58.

    Deely 2004, pp. 2–5.

  59. 59.

    Sebeok 1998, p. 32.

  60. 60.

    Sebeok 1973, p. 1189 and 1998, p. 32; Krampen et al. 1981 [1987, p. 214].

  61. 61.

    Krampen et al. 1981 [1987, p. 244–245].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department and Institute of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jui-Pi Chien

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Correspondence to Jui-Pi Chien .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Slavic and South Asian Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ekaterina Velmezova

  2. Professor in biosemiotics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Kalevi Kull

  3. Dept. of Language and Communication, University of Southern Denmark, Slagelse, Denmark

    Stephen J. Cowley

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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

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