Writings in General Linguistics

The first publication of the manuscript on general linguistics by Ferdinand Saussure which in the form of his students' lecture notes helped shape the thought of the twentieth century and which lay undiscovered in a Geneva summerhouse for eighty years. The new work throws fresh light on central aspects of Saussure's thought, including his famous oppositions between form and meaning, the sign and what is signified, and language (langue) and its performance (parole).