Language as system

Inaugural lecture--Department of Afrikaans, Rand Afrikaans University, 7 October 1969Twentieth century linguistics begins with De Saussure's Cours de /inguistique genera/e. One of De Saussure's main contributions is his thesis that language is a system of signs. This lecture deals with the influence of the conception of "system" on the main streams of twentieth century linguistics. After examining De Saussure's own view, extensive attention is paid to the work of the Prague phonologists, and of Sapir. The approach of the American structuralists is subsequently reviewed critically, and the standpoint taken that some of the excesses and failures of this school were due to an inadequate insight into, or an irresponsible application of, the notion of system. Finally, some of the main ideas of transformational generative grammar are set out, and the idea expressed that the notion of language as a well-defined system seems to be basic to this approach. It has, however, not yet been proven that language is a well-defined system. A linguistic theory that hopes to attain predictability will have to give this serious attention