Reading Saussure in the Original
Seven articles that quote two paragraphs of the French original of the Course in General Linguistics, give a ToL translation, and explain: the sign, linearity, syntagm and association, immutability and mutability, writing, internal linguistics, and who actually wrote the Course.
What Are the Signifier and the Signified? Saussure's Definition of the Sign, Read in the Original
Words are not names for things, Saussure says. We read, in the French original with a ToL translation, the passage that defines the sign as a link between a concept and a sound-image, and see why the terms signifiant and signifié were needed.
Why Can Words Only Be Lined Up in a Row? Saussure's Linearity of the Signifier, Read in the Original
You cannot say two sounds at once. Saussure made this obvious fact the second principle of the sign and said the whole mechanism of language depends on it. We read the French with a ToL translation, then test it on word order, particles, and sentence-boundary ambiguity.
What Is the Difference Between "Side-by-Side" and "Brought-to-Mind" Relations? Saussure's Syntagmatic and Associative Relations, Read in the Original
A sentence is words laid in a row, yet each word is also tied to a family of words in the mind. Saussure called these syntagmatic and associative relations. We read the French with a ToL translation and learn a simple test for telling them apart.
Why Does Language Change if We Cannot Choose It? Saussure's Immutability and Mutability, Read in the Original
Declare that from today "dog" means "cat," and nobody will understand you. Yet over centuries language changes a great deal. Saussure saw these two apparently contradictory facts as two sides of one cause. We read the French with a ToL translation and test it on English words.
Are Writing and Speech Different Things? Saussure's "Photograph and Face" and the Illusion of Writing, Read in the Original
Writing is only a record of speech, yet it comes to feel like the real thing. Saussure called this an illusion and likened it to studying a photograph in order to know a face. We read the French with a ToL translation and test the idea on spelling-sound mismatches.
What Does Linguistics Study, and What Does It Leave Out? Internal and External Linguistics, Read Through the Chess Analogy
Isn't tracing dialect maps or word origins linguistics? Saussure split study into external and internal and drew the line with chess: the material of the pieces versus their number. We read the French with a ToL translation and learn a test you can apply yourself.
Did Saussure Himself Write the Course in General Linguistics? The Editors' Preface, Read in the Original
The Course is not a book Saussure published in his lifetime. After his death, his colleagues "recreated" it from students' notes on three lecture series. We read the editors' own preface with a ToL translation and sort out how to read and cite the Course.