Talk:Course in General Linguistics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Philosophy Portal This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Philosophy, which collaborates on articles related to philosophy. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received an importance rating on the importance scale.
Additional information: Related task forces (major traditions): Continental philosophy

Contents 1 Difference and Value 2 Freud Maps Wittgenstein 3 Synchronic Linguistics 4 Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Relations

[edit] Difference and Value

the comparison between differance and blackadder's joke is superflous. that is not what saussure meant at all

I agree with you, which is why I have replaced the section with something that is actually accurate: an explanation of value, which was missing from the page. This section links to another article, in which value is explained in much more detail and pure difference is somewhat elucidated. --Le vin blanc (talk) 12:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Freud Maps Wittgenstein

signifier/signified ~ latent/manifest dream content - please clarify. Can't see it myself. Also there should be a serious attempt to incorporate a critical viewpoint on his theory of meaning. Are signifiers like squares of a map? An arbitrary grid (defined by differences) with correspondences to arbitrarily areas of depicted land (which is a representation of real land)? Map ref square E5 (which does not actually exist on the earth) refers to a part of the earth. E5 means nothing apart from being a meeting of square (signifier) and area of map(signified) i.e. is a sign. But Saussure suggests the map is incoherent until there is a grid. Is that true? And do languages/societies differ in their grids and maps? Is the map a representation of 'real' land only or does it picture 'social structures' too? And mental structures? And what about a Wittgensteinian criticism? Perhaps language is several maps of different sorts taken to be one.... Etc Pliny 12:25, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synchronic Linguistics

Should the link really to go synchronicity? As opposed to maybe Descriptive linguistics? I'm reluctant to make the switch because I don't know much about synchronicity.

[edit] Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Relations

Paradigms and Syntagms seem to be pretty important aspects of Saussure's linguistics, so I am surprised that they have been left out of the article. If I get the chance, I will write a section between the sections on value and the diachronic/synchronic distinction, but everyone else can feel free to have a go. --Le vin blanc (talk) 13:45, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I have added a small section on paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations. It's a start, but it could use a lot of work. I felt that I could not leave the article lacking even such a small description, however, because, combined with value, these relations are essential for understanding the usefulness of Saussure's linguistics. --Le vin blanc (talk) 22:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)