Concepţia saussuriană cu privire la diacronia limbii
Saussurian conception about the language diacronia

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this paper refers to Ferdinand de Saussure’s diachronic linguistic theory. This name is usually and rightfully associated to the descriptive study of language. Nevertheless, his linguistic thought also comprises some theories which pertain to the evolutionary aspect. In this short survey we aim at sketching the Saussurian conception with respect to language diachrony. We will not limit our study to the mere enumeration of his ideas, but we will also include some interpretations and comments belonging to other great linguists, such as Eugeniu Coseriu. More specifically, we will focus, first of all, on the understanding of language as a social institution, which means that a specific historical language can only exist (and function) within a social environment, it cannot be the “property” of one speaker. This means that a language is external to the individual, i.e., it is independent of him. Only the society as a whole can act upon a certain language, whereas the speaker can only internalize it passively, not being able to modify it. The implications of this idea lie at the basis of the structuralist belief according to which language is an autonomous reality, separated from its speakers and, consequently, evolving independently of them. The central issue is the famous opposition between synchrony and diachrony. Saussure applies this distinction not only to the research plane, that is, the linguistic discipline, but also to language as such, that is, the object of research. E. Coseriu argues that this opposition is only valid on the level of the research activity, language only having an exclusively diachronic nature. As regards the linguistic research, Saussure believes that the synchronic perspective should prevail over the diachronic one as the synchronic reality is the only one that speakers have access to. The speaker “sees” just a language state and is not aware of the way in which linguistic facts develop in time. This is why the scholar would plead for a type on linguistics focused on the synchronic and systematic study of language, to the detriment of the diachronic perspective. Nevertheless, Saussure also includes in his Course a chapter devoted to his conception with respect to the diachronic linguistics and its object of study. It is of no less importance the issue of the changing nature of languages. Their mutability is attributed by Saussure to the passing of time. According to him, time has an altering effect on all things, so it also acts upon linguistic signs, in the sense of altering the relation between the signifier and the signified.

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