How can we go beyond the Saussurean notion of sign? From Saussure to Benveniste

This paper examines the effects of Ferdinand de Saussure’s thoughts on the theoretical developments by Émile Benveniste, based on a specific notion: that of the linguistic sign. Many have already devoted themselves to this discussion. Almost always, their perspective focuses on the issue of arbitrariness. The starting point is usually Benveniste’s 1939 article “Nature du signe linguistique”, which criticizes the demonstration of arbitrariness present in the Course in general linguistics. However, here we seek another perspective: understanding how Benveniste’s criticism operates to establish his own approach to the issue. We hypothesize that even though Benveniste admits Saussure’s notion of sign, he reformulates it in order to propose his own understanding of the notion of linguistic sign. Finally, there are elements to suppose that Benveniste includes the Saussurean perspective on the sign, yet without preserving it in its entirety, to develop his own insight of the linguistic sign. --- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n44a96