giuseppe d'ottavi

Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 75 (2022)

Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, volume 75 (2022), édité par Ekaterina VELMEZOVA, Genève, Librairie Droz, 2025, 248 pages, ISSN : 0068-516X, ISBN-13 : 978-2-600-06615-0, € 63,30
Date de première publication : 17 Février 2025
Voir la notice de l’Éditeur.
Ce numéro en version numérique : https://revues.droz.org/CFS/issue/view/CFS_75


Table des matièresCahiers Ferdinand de Saussure (Cover)

I Éditorial

– À nos lectrices et à nos lecteurs (Ekaterina VELMEZOVA) [Texte intégral]

II Articles

– Gabriel BERGOUNIOUX, De l’emploi du génitif absolu en sanscrit (1881) et l’étude de la morphologie sanskrite dans l’œuvre de Saussure [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Giuseppe COSENZA, L’émergence et l’évolution de la sémiologie chez Saussure (1881-1894) [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Franco FANELLI, F. de Saussure and inner Speech. A reading proposal of CLG 98 [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Ahmed KHARBOUCH, La dualité anthropologique convention sociale / sujet individuel dans la sémiologie saussurienne [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Martina MECCO, Roman Jakobson and Slavische Rundschau (1929-1939) [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Anne-Gaëlle TOUTAIN, Linguistique et biologie : de l’idéologie scientifique au scientisme [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]
– Denis ZOLOTUKHIN, Traduire « De la double essence du langage » en Russe [Résumé] [PDF à l’achat]

III Documents

– John E. JOSEPH, Saussure’s Last Linguistic Studies: An Introduction to and English Translation of “On Latin compounds of the agricola type” (1909) and “Indo-European adjectives of the caecus ‘blind’ type” (1912) [PDF à l’achat]
– Monica BALLERINI. Francesca MURANO, Giovanni Flechia et son exemplaire du Mémoire [PDF à l’achat]

IV Lectures critiques

– Cindy GERVOLINO, Perspectives croisées sur le diagramme et le geste. À propos de Francesco La Mantia, Charles Alunni, Fernando Zalamea (dir.), Diagrams and Gestures. Mathematics, Philosophy and Linguistics, Springer, Londres, 2023 [PDF à l’achat]

V Comptes rendus

– Frederick J. Newmeyer, American Linguistics in Transition. From Post-Bloomfieldian Structuralism to Generative Grammar, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2022 (G. Cosenza, C.A. Forel) [Texte intégral]
– Bent Sørensen and Torkild Thellefsen (eds.), Ferdinand de Saussure in Contemporary Semiotics, Bordeaux, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2024 (F. Murano) [Texte intégral]
– Ekaterina Velmezova and Emanuele Fadda (eds.), Ferdinand de Saussure today: semiotics, history, epistemology, special issue of Sign Systems Studies, 50/1, 2022 (T. Drobysheva) [Texte intégral]
– Lorenzo Cigana, Hjelmslev e la teoria delle correlazioni linguistiche, Roma, Carocci, 2022 (E. Fadda) [Texte intégral]
– Jean-Louis Chiss, Idéologies linguistiques, politiques et didactiques des langues, Limoges, Lambert-Lucas, 2022 (E. Velmezova) [Texte intégral]

VI Chroniques du Cercle

– De l’héritage intellectuel Saussurien à l’école doctorale 2023. « L’histoire de la linguistique dans le miroir de l’histoire de la sémiotique » (D. Fargues, D. Zalesskaya) [Texte intégral]
– Traduire Saussure aujourd’hui (P.-Y. Testenoire) [Texte intégral]


Résumés

Gabriel BERGOUNIOUX (Université d’Orléans), De l’emploi du génitif absolu en sanscrit (1881) et l’étude de la morphologie sanskrite dans l’œuvre de Saussure
Abstract: The limits of the subject that Saussure chose for his PhD were a reaction to the requirements of an academic degree. The objections to the Mémoire had convinced him to restrict himself to a philological work whose data he could circumscribe and analyse in a limited time. This article examines the design of the PhD in order to establish its main results, highlighting a number of points of interest such as the artefacts of literacy on grammar, the production of interpretation shared between inflection and context or the attribution of a value (concessive clause), despite the absence of a direct formal mark. The second part examines Saussure’s other contributions on the Sanskrit language as a way to exemplify Indo-European facts or to come to terms with Hélène Smith’s glossolalia.
Keywords: Sanskrit, Morphology, Inflection, Glossolalia.
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Giuseppe COSENZA (Università della Calabria), L’émergence et l’évolution de la sémiologie chez Saussure (1881-1894)
Abstract: This paper is part of a reconstruction of Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiology. The reconstruction is based on a terminological inquiry into different terms related to semiology (fr. sémiologie). The occurrences of terms were extracted from different Saussurean texts written during the period between 1881 and 1911. The paper also contains two hypotheses about the source of Saussure’s semiology. However, for reasons of space, the detailed analysis of the values of the term “semiologyˮ and related terms is restricted to the period 1881-1894. Our analysis takes up and extends Chidichimo’s essay (2014) on the term “semiologyˮ; the article integrates and clarifies Chidichimo’s analysis of the term “semiologyˮ into a broader and more precise view. Our study shows that the emergence of semiology as a science of signs went through several stages in Ferdinand de Saussure’s thought before being established as a science.
Keywords: Semiology, Sémiologie, History of semiotics, Theory of signs.
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Franco FANELLI (independent researcher), F. de Saussure and inner Speech. A reading proposal of CLG 98
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to highlight what topics are actually covered in a particular short passage of the Cours de linguistique générale and to propose its correct interpretation. The passage may seem obscure as it lacks, in our view, an explicit reference to inner speech. The manuscript sources confirm the omission and support the argument that in this passage Saussure was thinking precisely of the langage intérieur. In the last part of the article, we examine the Saussurean sources about inner speech. In particular, we consider La parole intérieure by Victor Egger (1881), a wide-ranging book that deals with inner speech. The fact that Saussure read and annotated this work is a relevant clue that inner speech is truly a topic of the passage we discuss in this essay.
Keywords: Course in General Linguistics, Manuscript sources, Inner speech, Victor Egger.
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Ahmed KHARBOUCH (Université Mohamed Premier, Oujda, Maroc) La dualité anthropologique convention sociale / sujet individuel dans la sémiologie saussurienne
Abstract: Saussure is generally recognized as the one who, together with Peirce, laid the foundations of modern semiotic thought. His influence, like that of the American, is indeed diffuse and crosses different schools and trends in current semiotic research. An essential feature, however, differentiates him from the American philosopher, namely that he puts forward, in his conception of the “science of signs”, a very clear anthropological orientation. This is highlighted, as we will try to show, in the way in which he conceives semiosis as the encounter between the particular “thought” of the individual and the different semiological institutions of society. This necessary encounter within the semiological fact between the subject and the convention constitutes the central duality of the semiotic thought of the Genevan and explains why his semiology is not a formal science.
Keywords: Duality, Anthropological aiming, Semiological institution, Speaking subject, Collective consciousness, Social convention.
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Martina MECCO (Sapienza University of Rome / Charles University of Prague) Roman Jakobson and Slavische Rundschau (1929-1939)
Abstract: In 1929-1939, during his stay in Czechoslovakia, Roman Jakobson collaborated intensively with the Prague German-language journal Slavische Rundschau (Slavic Review). The periodical was founded and run by two German Slavists affiliated with the Deutsche Universität Prag, Gerhart Gesemann and Franz Spina. Being the head of Slavische Rundschau’s Ostslavisches Referat (East Slavic Section), Jakobson had to handle the correspondence with scholars from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and edit or co-edit their contributions. Slavische Rundschau’s collection, which was never processed, contains an extensive number of materials related to Jakobson’s activity in the journal. This article aims to give a preliminary analysis of these materials (correspondence and editorial documents). Due to their importance, particular attention will be given to correspondence Jakobson received from Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian scholars (mainly linguists or philologists) and institutions.
Keywords: Roman Jakobson, Slavische Rundschau, Correspondence, Czechoslovakia, German press.
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Anne-Gaëlle TOUTAIN (Université de Berne / Laboratoire « Histoire des théories linguistiques »), Linguistique et biologie : de l’idéologie scientifique au scientisme
Abstract: In this article, we show that the incursions of linguists into biology, from Schleicher through aphasiology to evolutionary linguistics, have created an unchanged space, the permanence of which lies in the absence of a break with the representation of language as an entity. This break, made by Saussure, nonetheless remained a dead letter in linguistics, whose relationship with biology has since been placed under the sign of scientific ideology, in the sense of Georges Canguilhem, coupled with reductionism. These relationships are established in place of a definition of language, and within the framework of the definition of common knowledge. Theoretical elaboration is then replaced by the spatialization and temporalization of this definition, spatialization and temporalization constituting the elective axes, respectively, of aphasiology and evolutionary linguistics.
Keywords: Synchrony/Diachrony, Organicism, Naturalism, Structuralism, Cognitivism, Biolinguistics, Evolutionary linguistics.
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Denis ZOLOTUKHIN (Université Paris Cité / Laboratoire « Histoire des théories linguistiques »), Traduire « De la double essence du langage » en Russe
Abstract: The translation of Saussurean texts and terminology has become a science in its own right. The discovery of new documents during the 20th century provided material that not only advanced this field but also presented numerous challenges, compelling translators to rethink existing translations. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the features of the translation process into Russian of the manuscripts titled De la double essence du langage discovered in 1996. Going through the history of existing Russian translations of Saussure’s texts, the author takes into consideration terminological, philological and epistemological aspects of the translation of this text which remains largely unknown to Russian scholars, as well as suggesting strategies that can be applied to solve different issues caused by the particular form, content and context of these manuscripts.
Keywords: Scientific translation, Russian language, Saussurean terminology, Saussurean manuscripts, De la double essence du langage.
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Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Chroniques, Parutions

CISPELS III Storie del significato: il “secolo semantico” e le sue radici

Terzo Convegno Nazionale CISPELS. Storie del significato: il “secolo semantico” e le sue radici.
Università della Calabria (Cosenza), 9-11 ottobre 2025.

Affiche du colloque générée par l’IA à partir de l’appel à communication

“Significato” è uno dei termini più controversi della linguistica, anzitutto nella sua dimensione storica. Da un lato, il focus sul significato (e sulla sua natura pubblica/oggettiva) è la cifra del pensiero linguistico del Novecento, del linguistic turn e dell’ascesa del linguaggio a tema principe nelle scienze umane (da Frege a Wittgenstein, da Bréal a Saussure, da Peirce a Morris) – ma questa spinta propulsiva sembra essersi esaurita nel secolo attuale. Dall’altro, il significato come dominio, come tema e come problema c’è sempre stato (anche prima che Bréal desse un nome alla scienza del significato), e rimane tuttora sullo sfondo, anche se i termini “semantica” e “significato” non vanno più di moda.
Del resto, bisogna riconoscere che il termine ‘significato’, linguisticamente, pone non pochi problemi concettuali: esso infatti funziona solo in quanto opposto a ‘significante’, e suppone un ruolo passivo (“ciò che è significato” si oppone a “ciò che significa”). Inoltre, esso incorpora un riferimento al segno e non tutte le teorie del linguaggio sono semiotiche. Nella letteratura anglofona (in larga parte non semiotica) ‘meaning’ svolge invece l’ufficio di un participio presente, si riferisce all’intenzione, e non allude al segno (ma piuttosto al pensiero, ed eventualmente alla realtà extralinguistica). Frege d’altra parte ha introdotto nel mondo germanofono la distinzione tra Sinn e Bedeutung che ha avuto enormi ricadute sulla riflessione sia linguistica che semiotica.
Questa consistenza fantasmatica del significato, però, non permette di disfarsene davvero, perché la parola (e la nozione di) ‘significato’ hanno un saldo ancoraggio nel senso comune e nel sapere epilinguistico e metalinguistico (per cui si parla p. es. di significato della musica, delle immagini ecc.). Proprio in questo contesto gli studi storici assumono un ruolo fondamentale nel recuperare i problemi che avevano fatto emergere e dato centralità al significato negli studi teorici del Novecento, che spesso non tenevano (abbastanza) conto della storia delle idee.

Extrait de l’appel à communication (disponible en anglais aussi), à consulter pour toutes les info pratiques.

Calendrier
– Date limite de réception des propositions d’atelier : 30 avril 2025
– Date limite de réception des propositions de communication : 31 mai 2025
– Notification d’acceptation d’atelier : 30 juin 2025
– Notification d’acceptation de communication : 31 juillet 2025
– Conférence : 9-11 Octobre 2025

Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Colloque, Événements

« Reading Mulholland Drive through Post-Structuralism »

Aurora Amidon, « Reading Mulholland Drive through Post-Structuralism », Paste. Signs of Life in Music, Film & Culture, October 19, 2021
Article disponible en ligne.

The truth of the matter is, if you’re anything like I once was and you want nothing more than to figure out what this audacious two-and-a-half-hour descent into madness and absurdity really means, you’ll inevitably run into a number of people who will essentially tell you the same thing: It’s not a movie that’s meant to be understood. And sadly, because of this, Mulholland Drive remained more or less meaningless to me for years. That is, until I discovered the 20th century post-structuralist philosophers.

In his essay series Course in General Linguistics, early structuralist philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure explains that “in language there are only differences,” by which he means that it we can only understand what a symbol is by understanding what it is not. And if we were to apply this ideology to Mulholland Drive, it would suggest that we can only really understand the film by first understanding that we can’t derive any logical meaning from its plot.

Extrait de l’article.

Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Variétés

« Saviez-vous que Saussure n’était pas structuraliste ? »

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) est présenté par Wikipedia comme le « précurseur du structuralisme en linguistique ». Il a de fait joué historiquement ce rôle, mais les structuralistes se sont mépris sur sa théorie. Comme nous le verrons, cette méprise est tout à fait révélatrice de la nature de l’objet de la linguistique.

La rubrique Le saviez-vous ? de nos confrères du laboratoire Histoire des théories linguistiques accueille aujourd’hui un billet d’Anne-Gaëlle Toutain, Secrétaire du Cercle Ferdinand de Saussure, qui retrace l’histoire d’un malentendu structuraliste à la peau dure.

Savez-vous où lire la suite ? C’est par ici.

Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Variétés

Bon anniversaire !

Messager annonçant le nouveau président du Cercle

Pour laisser les saussuriens se préparer dûment à l’anniversaire, nous donnons aujourd’hui une annonce officielle.

Lors de la dernière Assemblée générale, un seul tour de scrutin a suffi pour élire Ekaterina Velmezova comme nouvelle présidente du Cercle Ferdinand de Saussure.
Ekaterina Velmezova, déjà membre du Comité de rédaction des Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, est professeure ordinaire dans la Section de langues et civilisations slaves et de l’Asie du Sud (SLAS) de l’Université de Lausanne.
Elle succède à John E. Joseph, président du Cercle depuis 2019.
Ekaterina Velmezova prendra se fonctions à partir du 1er Janvier 2025.

Le Comité du Cercle Ferdinand de Saussure tient à remercier chaleureusement John E. Joseph pour avoir efficacement mis toutes ses compétences et son humanité exquise au service du Cercle dans un délicat moment de passage.

Le Comité salue la nouvelle présidente du Cercle Ferdinand de Saussure et lui souhaite bon travail !

Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Chroniques

La lingua fra storia e testo. In ricordo di Giacomo Devoto

Giacomo Devoto (1897-1974)

La portata del sentimento anche dal punto di vista diacronico è fondamentale, lo svolgimento dei significati è inconcepibile se non si considera il continuo ondeggiare delle loro risonanze affettive anche in parole di uso non del tutto popolare: indipendentemente dalle particolari circostanze storiche, ‘captivus’ ha acquistato in francese una risonanza affettiva di compassione, in italiano di biasimo, ‘desiderium’ si è spogliato del senso di rimpianto, ‘successo’ ha ormai, salvo che nelle scuole, una risonanza buona ed è una pedanteria parlare ancora di ‘buon successo’ in opposizione a ‘cattivo successo’, per il quale esiste un regolare contrario ‘insuccesso’.

Ce passage, tiré de l’article « Una scuola di linguistica generale » (La Cultura VII, 6, 1928, pp. 241-249 : 245) qui marque l’entrée des genevois dans le débat linguistique italien, témoigne toute l’originalité – et l’actualité ! – de la pensée de son auteur, Giacomo Devoto (1897-1974). Quelques lignes plus bas, il ajoute :

Tale è l’opera di Ferdinand de Saussure e dei suoi discepoli quale appare a uno studioso italiano a loro vicino per temperamento e per comunanza di ideali scientifici.

Une dizaine d’années plus tard, après avoir rédigé, entre autres, « Bally, Charles » (1930), « Bréal, Michel » (1930), « Meillet, Antoine » (1934), Devoto signe l’entrée « Saussure, Ferdinand de » dans le XXXe (1937) volume de l’Enciclopedia Italiana (1929-1937), la majeure entreprise éditoriale du secteur culturel italien du XXe siècle.

À cette figure centrale de la linguistique italienne, l’Université de Florence, qui fut la sienne, consacre une journée d’études toute entière, organisée par Monica Ballerini et Francesca Murano, le 5 décembre dans l’Aula de l’Université.
Le programme de la journée et tous les renseignements sont dans l’affiche ; la voix, la figure et le costume du maître sont ici (min. 3:25).

Publié par giuseppe d'ottavi dans Événements, Journée d'étude