European Structuralism & Ferdinand DE Saussure, Literary Theory: Crash Course for UGC NET English

European structuralism is not only a hetero-generous movement of linguistics but also a movement of Thought in the human sciences. It developed in Europe during 1970s.
It is related to the study of languages which cannot be separated from semantics Rather it is connected with it. it is naturally applied and takes a lot of linguistics approaches. it is theoretical. paradigmatic and contrastive relationships exist in European structuralism. one language theory for every European language is one of characteristics of European structuralism.
Swiss Linguist Ferdinand DE Saussure was the chief representative of European Structuralism. And he is considered to be the most prominent European linguist of the first half of the 20th century. He is regarded as the founding father of modern linguistics.
He is the chief exponent in the development of structuralist linguistics that was developed in the post first world war period. He is famous for his key text "Course In General Linguistics" dealing with linguistic thinking & language that can be viewed as a structured system. He is mainly famous for his idea that is language is a system of arbitrary signs.( a written word is an image of a vocal sign.)
Saussure made a number of fundamental distinctions which are still basic to linguistic thinking. These are :
Langue versus parole
the Parole VS Langue dichotomy
Saussure says THAT there are two sides to language: langue and parole. Langue is that part of Language which ‘is not complete in any individual, but exists only in the collectivity’. PAROLE, on the other hand, is observable in the behavior of the individual. According to Saussure, it is not homogeneous.

Saussure strongly believes that linguistics is fundamentally the study of langue, sometimes , a linguistics of parole.
The distinction between langue and parole has suffered two major changes in subsequent scholarship. However, Chomsky introduces the distinction between competence and performance. PERFORMANCE is very like Saussure’s parole. COMPETENCE, however, is unlike Saussure’s langue in that it has no social side to it; it is a mental construct in the individual. Although Saussure concedes that ‘langue is something which exists in each individual’, he also adds ‘yet is common to all of them. (Saussure 1969 [1916]: 38).

Chomsky also points out that for Saussure langue is ‘a system of signs’ while for Chomsky, competence is a generative system. This is an accurate description of langue, but does not seem to be fundamental to the notion of it in the way that its social aspect is.

In more recent work of Chomsky , competence and performance have given a way to a third distinction between I-language and E-language (where I and E are to be interpreted as ‘internalized’ and ‘externalized’. For Saussure, linguistics deals with langue; for Chomsky linguistics deals with I-language. Thus, for Saussure, linguistics involves studying the language of the community, while for Chomsky it involves studying the language potential of the individual.

References:-------
Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, Noam (1986). Knowledge of Language. New York: Praeger.
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1969 [1916]). Cours de linguistique générale.

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