11 – CONSTRUCTION OF THE CLG

Organizer : DANIELE GAMBARARA, Dipartimento Studi Umanistici, Università della Calabria. Président du Cercle Ferdinand de Saussure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SESSION

Ever since the time when the editing of the CLG was still an ongoing project, from 1913 to 1916, discussions on how to construct the work were lively, between Meillet and Bally, between Bally and Sechehaye – traces of them can be seen in the reviews of the period. It is only since 1949-50 that research has been done on the text of the CLG and its sources, in order to understand how the conditions of its composition managed to render certain points of Saussurean thought ambiguous or contradictory. This is what gave rise to Godel’s thesis on the Sources manuscrites (1957), Engler’s critical edition (1967-74) and De Mauro’s commentary (1967). From that moment on, philological research on the text’s construction, and critical evaluations on its value, have not ceased, but have oscillated from one extreme that considers the CLG an apocryphal text to another that takes it to be the sole organic testimony of Saussure’s vision.

We are not dealing simply with a posthumous work; the manuscripts with which it gets compared are not for the most part in Saussure’s hand, and what is more, they relate to three different courses, spread apart in time. However, we have indications that Saussure envisaged a progression in the courses, that he conceived of each of them as a wholly distinct text; his preparatory notes allow us to evaluate the students’ notebooks, and the editors took into consideration a more ample quantity of Saussurean manuscripts that what is habitually cited.

On the centenary of its publication, and following half a century of research, the moment seems propitious for taking stock and, if possible, summarizing the approach that made it possible for Bally and Sechehaye to see their project through on the basis of Saussure’s notes, his students’ notes and memories of their teacher, as well as to determine which facets of Saussurean research are found there and in which parts of the work.

Papers encompass a variety of subjects:

1. Saussure’s general linguistics before the 1907-11 courses (with consideration of passages used in the CLG); the relationship between specific points in the CLG and the direct traces of Saussure’s general reflections throughout his life, outside the courses in general linguistics
2. The programme and the three courses in general linguistics (with analysis of each course); the preparation and carrying out by Saussure of each course in general linguistics, in relation to his other courses
3. An attempt to reconstruct a lecture by Saussure
4. The students’ notebooks; characteristics of the editing of the notes of each student of the courses in general linguistics, in relation to the notes of other students on the same course and notes by the same student for other courses of Saussure’s;
5. The editing of the CLG by Bally and Sechehaye (paying particular attention to the concordance sources – CLG); the phases and modes of the editing of the CLG by Bally and Sechehaye and their collaborators;
6. What is and is not Saussure’s in the CLG; points at which the CLG appears to contradict positions taken in other manuscripts or publications of Saussure ;
7. The terminology of the CLG;
8. Reviews of the CLG and the reactions of contemporaries to the first editions;
9. Tools for study of the CLG.

PLENARY SPEAKERS

Ludwig Jäger (Professeur RTWH Aix la Chapelle),