Saussure

[Robert Orr]

De Saussure was known in linguistic circles in Russia long before the actual 
publication of the Cours.

Kruszewski's Writings in General Linguistics, dating from the 1880's, and 
published in translation by John Benjamins of Amsterdam in 1995, and edited 
with an introduction by  E.F. Konrad Koerner, also contains a mention of de 
Saussure's Mémoire sur le système primitif des voyelles dans les langues 
indo-européenes, which dated from 1878, and was the first hint of what later 
became the Indo-European laryngeal theory.

What is not often noted is that de Saussure hypothesised the laryngeal 
theory from an Indo-European vowel system still reconstructed mainly on the 
basis of Sanskrit, which made his achievement all the more impressive.

I have a review of Writings in General Linguistics in Canadian Slavonic 
Papers XXXVIII: 1-2: 253-255, 1996.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alexandra Smith" <Alexandra.Smith at ED.AC.UK>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 11:02 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Saussure


> Dear Professor Laursen,
>
> Professor Nikolai Krushevsky (The University of Kazan') had developed 
> some ideas that influenced Saussure. His thesis suggesting that  language 
> contains a system of signs was already formularted in the  1870s and was 
> known to Saussure. (You could look at this site for some  biographical 
> information: http//:dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/ruwiki/321405 )
> I also suspect that Prince Volkonsky knew Saussure's work. His 1913  book 
> "Vyrazitel'nyi chelovek" contains a lot of ideas on semiotics  that are 
> akin to Saussure.
>
> All best,
> Alexandra Smith
>
>
> ----------------------------------
>
>
>
> Alexandra Smith (PhD, University of London)
> Reader in Russian
> Department of European Languages and Cultures
> School of  Languages, Literatures and Cultures
> The University of Edinburgh
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> e-mail: Alexandra.Smith at ed.ac.uk
>
>
>
>
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