Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar (IDS 175)

Study Questions for Ferdinand de Saussure

"Nature of the Linguistic Sign"

1. What is the traditional view of language that Saussure critiques?

2. What are the components of the linguistic sign?
   How do they differ from names and things?

3. What does Saussure call the new field of the study of signs?

4. What does Saussure mean by the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign?

5. What does Saussure argue that the linguistic sign should not be referred to as a symbol?

6. Why are onomatopoeia and interjections not exceptions to language’s arbitrariness?

"Linguistic Value"

1. How does Saussure differentiate "value" from "signification"?
   How does this relate to the interrelationships of signs in language systems?

2. Explain Saussure's assertion, "Arbitrary and differential are two correlative qualities."

3. What does Saussure note about the way we process individual phonemes in different languages?

4. Is Saussure correct to assert that the graphic sign is arbitrary in the same way as spoken signs?

5. What does Saussure claim is the source of our mistaken thinking about language?

6. What are the differences between associative and syntagmatic relations?

7. What others factors might govern associative relations that Saussure does not address?

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