Course in General Linguistics (Open Court Classics)

by Ferdinand de Saussure

Other authorsRoy Harris

Paperback, 1998

Status

Available

Call number

410

Genres

Publication

Open Court (1998), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 236 pages

Description

This new edition of Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics (1916) is the first critical edition of Saussure to appear in English. It also restores Wade Baskin's delightful original English translation (1959), which has long been unavailable. The founder of modern linguistics, Saussure inaugurated semiology, structuralism, and deconstruction and made possible the work of Jacques Lacan, French feminism, cultural studies, New Historicism, and postcolonialism. Based on the lectures that Saussure gave at the end of his life at the University of Geneva, the text of th

User reviews

LibraryThing member inkstained

This is a linguistics classic and a must-read for anyone wanting to delve into the history of linguistics. Just to be sure, however, this is a collection of notes from his course painstakingly collected into this volume by his students. The notes are based on a series of lectures, so it doesn't

really read so much like a textbook.

If you're looking for a more specific understanding of general linguistics as the field stands today, I recommend picking up a contemporary introductory text and reading this after you've got a basic grounding in linguistics terms and concepts.

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