From the Phonetic Laws to the Synchrony: Possible Pathway and Implications in Ferdinand de Saussure’s Work

Raul de Carvalho Rocha,
Núbia Rabelo Bakker Faria
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Abstract

Our purpose with this paper is to discuss the possible developments of the studies of phonetic laws for the formulation of the concept of synchrony within the Saussurean Linguistics. Based on Milner’s (2012[1978]; 2021[1995]) premise that there is a relationship of continuity between Saussure’s thinking and the Comparative Grammar, we assume that the formulation of the concept of phonetic law in the scope of the 19th century Linguistics led Saussure to conceive the non-substantiality of the linguistic entity and, from this, to conceptualize the synchrony. This is a theoretical research divided into two analytical perspectives: an external analysis focused on the theoretical framework of the linguistic knowledge disseminated in the 19th century, whose corpus is the classic work of Hermann Paul, Principles of the history of language (1880). In Paul’s work, we find an “overview” of the key concepts of the Neogrammarian School, which is the context of the emergence of Saussure’s thinking; and an internal analysis that focus on Saussure’s works and aims to recover the textual evidences of the formulation of the concept of synchrony by analyzing the first three lectures given by Saussure at the University of Geneva (1891) and the Course in General Linguistics (1916), although it is not limited to those. We concluded that the theoretical discussion on the phonetic laws and the methodological approach used by nineteenth-century linguists to establish them leads Saussure to the understanding of the non-substantial nature of the language (langue) and its synchronic functioning, and enables the author to provide the conceptual conditions that makes the Comparative Grammar a Modern Science

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).

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