2.2 The Source of Saussure's Thought

The early history of linguistics can be traced back to thousands of years ago. However, modern linguistics did not begin until the end of the 18th century, and linguistics was not an academic discipline until the 19th century. It was because during that time, German universities had introduced the concept of a university dedicated to both research and teaching.

From 1876 to 1880, Saussure studied in Leipzig and Berlin,where the German linguistics was essentially historical, or diachronic. By using the comparative method which was discovered at the end of the 19th century, the linguists try to compare the ancient related languages to define which family a language belongs to, and then reconstruct sound changes and morphological innovations of its parent language. In this way, it is possible to show that some languages are of the same linguistic family. In addition, it can help us to learn more about history and understand the features of language development.

In the late 19th century, there were a school of linguists at the University of Leipzig, where Saussure then attended, called the Neogrammarians. They argued that the Indo-Europeanists had to study more modern languages and pay more attention to the language change in language comparison. They also adopted two approaches to language change: 1) phonetic change is not determined by the speakers, but takes place unconsciously; 2) morphological change is influenced by analogy, for the speakers remodel grammar rules each other.

After his doctorate being awarded in 1880, Saussure arrived in Paris. There were two schools of linguistics in Paris, both indebted to German comparative grammar. One of them was called “linguistic naturalism, ” under the influence of Darwinism, portraying languages as natural organisms, some of which are more advanced. In The Science of Language: Linguistics, Philosophy, Etymology (2017), Hovelacque says, “All languages are born, grow, decay and die like all living things.” He also introduces in the same book the notion of language, langue, and parole, which are the threefold terminology that later are developed by Saussure. The other school was led by Michel Bréal, who is considered as the institutional founder of linguistics in France. He had a view that language exists for communication, which was totally different from that of the former school, and that language is essentially a social activity involving speakers. While in Paris, Saussure had worked with him for ten years, and his posthumous work, Course in General Linguistics, has some similar ideas with Bréal's. However, not only this, all Saussure's everyday life there provided the context for Saussure's thought.