Assignment: Structuralism

Assignment
Georgeiy roy
Class no 513
Structuralism
Structuralism has its origin in the thinking of the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913)
who in the early twentieth century revolutionized the study of language. His The Course in General
Linguistics (1916) is generally seen as being the originator of structuralism. The Course in General
Linguistics which goes under his name was compiled by colleagues after his death, based on lecture
notes taken down by Saussure’s students in his life time, is an outstanding contribution in the arena
of language. Saussure was a key figure in the development of modern approach to language study.
In the 19th century linguistic scholars had mainly been interested in historical aspects of language.
Saussure focused instead on the patterns and functions of language in use today, the emphasis on
how meanings are maintained and established and on the functions of grammatical structures.
1. Diachronic and Synchronic approach
He distinguishes two approaches in the study of language: diachronic and synchronic. The terms
diachronic and synchronic have their origin in Greek. Diachronic means through or across time and
synchronic means together time. Diachronic approach to the study of language is concerned with
the study of language through time.
2. Signifier and Signified
According to Saussure, a language is a system of signs. Each sign in language is a union of signifier
and signified. Signifier is the sound image or its graphic equivalent. The concept referred to is the
signified. The relationship between the signifier and the signified was arbitrary with respect to
nature/object but not with respect to culture. Saussure emphasized that the meanings we give to
words are purely arbitrary, and that these meanings are maintained by convention only. Therefore,
words are unmotivated signs, meaning that there is no inherent connection between a word and
what it designates. There is the minor exception of a small number of onomatopoeic words.
3. Langue and Parole Langue
denotes all the elements of a language including the rules and conventions of their combination. It
refers to the totality of language shared by the ‘collective consciousness’. Hence it is abstract and it
is a collective linguistic pattern too. Parole is the actual use of the language by an individual in
speech or writing. It is the concrete physical manifestation of the abstract langue that exists in one’s
mind. Parole is not collective but individual. It is momentary, flexible and heterogeneous. It cannot
be stable and systematic. Langue is what people use when thinking and conceptualizing (abstract)
while parole is what they use in speaking or writing (concrete).
4. Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic
Two types of relationships between linguistic units have been identified by Saussure syntagmatic
and paradigmatic. Rules of selection and combination work on the basis of the paradigmatic and
syntagmatic relationships. When we view the signs as a linear sequence the relationship between
them is known as syntagmatic.
5. Differential/Relational
Saussure emphasized that the meanings of words are relational. That is to say, no word can be
defined in isolation from other words. The definition of any given word depends upon its relation
with other ‘adjoining’ words. This relational aspect of language gave rise to a famous remark of
Saussure’s: “In a language there are only differences, without fixed terms.” “Linguistic signs are not
substantive instead they are only relational and differential.” In short differences make meaning.
Structuralism is a way of thinking that works to find the fundamental basic units or elements of
which anything is made.
The most prominent thinkers associated with structuralism include Lévi-Strauss, Roland Barthes and
Jonathan Culler
Structuralism sees language as the only medium to construct reality. The anthropologist Claude
Lévi-Strauss applied the structuralist outlook to the interpretation of myth. Roland Barthes applied
the structuralist method to the general field of modern culture.
The structuralists were greatly influenced by Saussure, whose teaching can be summarised in three
points: 1. Arbitrariness: Words have no real connection to their meanings or the things they
describe. The connections are established by convention. 2. Relationality: Words make sense to us,
or have ‘value’ (Saussure’s term) for us in their relationality: in their difference from other words.
Words are therefore related to each other in the form of difference and have no absolute value of
their own. As we have seen above, every word is opposed to, different from another word, and
meaning emerges in this difference. 3. Systematicity: The structure of language, or the system,
ensures that we recognize difference.
What structuralist critics do
1. They analyse prose narratives, relating the text to some larger containing structure, such as: the
conventions of a particular genre, or a network of intertextual connections, or a projected model of
an underlying universal narrative structure, or a notion of narrative as complex of recurrent patterns
or motifs.
2. They interpret literature in terms of a range of underlying parallels with the structures of
language.
3. They apply the concept of systematic patterning and structuring to the whole field of Western
culture and across cultures.

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Assignment

1. Diachronic and Synchronic approach

2. Signifier and Signified

3. Langue and Parole Langue

4. Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic

What structuralist critics do

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