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BA English Literature
Third Year & Fifth Semester
Aspects of English Language – III
Unit -1: Introduction
Introduction:
The major contribution of Ferdinand
de Saussure to linguistics can be summed up as providing the basic groundwork
of fundamental concepts; his definition of the ‘linguistic sign’; his
explanation of the distinction between concrete and abstract linguistic units;
distinction between descriptive (synchronic) and historical (diachronic), study
of language, and so on. He was under the influence of the new scientific
temperament and followed the principles of Durkheim who said that ‘we have
social facts that can be studied scientifically when we consider them from an
aspect that is independent of their individual manifestations’. This attitude
helped the shaping of the structuralist approach.
1.1 Langue, Parole and Language
De Saussure put forward the concepts
of La langue, La Parole and Le Language.
Le Language denotes a host of heterogeneous traits
that a speaker possesses, such as his ability to produce speech acquired
through heredity, his inherent ability to speak and the external factors that
trigger and stimulate speech. It encompasses such factors as physical,
physiological and psychological. Most significantly, it belongs to both the
individual and society. Speech occupies a less important place in Le Language.
The latter’ is, therefore, of greater interest to the anthropologist and the
biologist.
La langue is more directly indicative of ability
to produce speech, a kind of ‘institutionalized element’ of the community’s
collective consciousness. Every member of the community shares it, and because
of this they are in a position to understand each other. Through langue they
share the common properties of speech. ‘If one took away what was idiosyncratic
or innovational, langue would remain. Langue, by definition, is stable and
systematic, society conveys the regularities of langue to the child so that he
becomes able to function as a member of the speech community (Wilkins).
La
langue is a collective pattern which exists as ‘a sum of impressions deposited
in the brain of each individual.., like a dictionary of which identical copies
have been distributed to each individual... it exists in each individual, yet
it is common to all’.
La
langue is a repository of signs which each speaker has received from the other
speakers of the community. It is passive. It is a set of conventions received
by us all, ready-made from the community.
La Parole: By contrast la parole is active and
denotes the actual speech act of the individual. We can better understand it by
considering each act of speaking as a unique event. It is unique because it
reflects the unstable, changeable relationship between the languages, the
precise contextual elements triggering particular utterances, and personal
factors. Thus each particular speech act is characterised by the personality, nature
and several other external forces governing both the production and reception
of a speech act.
There
is a great deal that is particular, individual, personal and idiosyncratic
about la parole as opposed to la langue which emphasizes speech as the common
act of behaviour, ‘given that there is a good deal that is idiosyncratic or not
fully institutionalised, parole cannot be stable and systematic’ (Wilkins).
Parole gives the data from which statements about langue are made; parole is
not collective but individual, momentary and heterogeneous.
The main points of distinction between
La Langue and La Parole
La Langue
- It is stable and institutionalized
- It is passive
- It is a social fact and general for the community.
- It contains the negative limits on what a speaker must say.
- It is sum of properties shared by all speakers of a community.
- A scientific study can only be based on La langue.
- It is an abstraction.
- It is a collective instrument.
- It is a set of conventions and habits handed down to next generation readymade.
- It is language as a speaker is expected to use.
- It is not subject to social and individual pressure.
- It is fixed.
- It is a potential form of language.
La Parole
- It is mobile and personal.
- It is active.
- It is individual and idiosyncratic.
- It does not put any such limits.
- It contains infinite number of individual properties.
- It is not amenable to scientific study.
- It is concrete manifestation.
- It is not a collective instrument.
- It is diverse and variegated.
- It is language in actual use.
- It is susceptible to social and other pressure.
- It is free.
- It is an actualized form of language.
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