SAUSSURE AND CHOMSKY: THE DISTINCTNESS OF THEIR 'IDENTICAL' VIEWS

• Authors: Nemeth T. Eniko
• Languages of publication: HU

Abstracts

EN

Due to the 'systematic' approach to language that they both proposed, and on account of their pairs of terms langue vs. parole and competence vs. performance, the literature abounds in claims concerning the relatedness, indeed the identity, of the major tenets of the two most influential linguists of the twentieth century, Ferdinand de Saussure, the founder of structuralism, and Noam Chomsky, the initiator of generative linguistics. Yet, looking more closely at Saussure's and Chomsky's views on (1) language and competence, (2) language acquisition, (3) speech and language use, (4) grammar, (5) the evolution of language, and (6) the tasks of linguistics, we can see that, despite certain points of identity, they differ in several important respects. The present paper takes each of the above problem areas in turn, contrasts Saussure's and Chomsky's claims and definitions concerning them, and points out similarities and differences between the two systems, the two theories.

Keywords

EN

CHOMSKY; SAUSSURE

Discipline

• PHILOLOGY_&_LINGUISTICS: PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS

• Publisher: Society of Hungarian Linguistics
• Journal: Magyar Nyelv (Hungarian Language)
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 102
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 420-430
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Nemeth T. Eniko

• Eniko T. Nemeth, for postal address contact the journal editor; www.c3.hu/~magyarnyelv/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10HUAAAA071426