Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Saussure : Signs, System and Arbitrariness - No Information Available

Saussure

Signs, System and Arbitrariness

By: No Information Available

Hardcover | 19 August 1991

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $197.95

$174.75

12%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $43.69 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) has exerted a profound influence not only on twentieth century linguistics but on a whole range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. His central thesis was that the primary object in studying a language is the state of that language at a particular time--a so-called synchronic study. He went on to claim that a language state is a socially constituted system of signs that are quite arbitrary and that can only be defined in terms of their relationship within the system. This new perspective has changed the way people think about linguistics and has led to important attempts to apply structuralist ideas in anthropology, literary criticism, and philosophy. Professor Holdcroft's book expounds and elaborates Saussure's central ideas. It also offers a critical assessment of them, arguing that many of Saussure's claims are either questionable or have been misunderstood. The book will be read with profit by nonspecialists and could be used as a textbook by students of linguistics, philosophy of language, literary criticism and anthropology.
Industry Reviews
"[Holdcroft's] book, which will disturb orthodox Saussureans and invigorate critical ones, deserves to become the lightning rod foor a new wave of Saussure commentary aimed both at upsetting and furthering its conclusions." Language "A concise, clear and sophisticated critique of Saussure's thought, this small book should do much good." Times Literary Supplement

More in Western Philosophy

Beginning to Live : The Art of Existential Freedom - Emmy van Deurzen
The Myth of Sisyphus : Vintage International - Albert Camus

RRP $35.00

$26.75

24%
OFF
The Poetics of Space : Penguin Classics - Gaston Bachelard

RRP $32.99

$23.75

28%
OFF
The Myth of Sisyphus : Penguin Modern Classics - Albert Camus

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison - Michel Foucault

RRP $29.99

$22.75

24%
OFF
Spell Of The Sensuous: Perceptions : Perceptions - David Abram

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Nausea : Popular Penguins : Popular Penguins Ser. - Jean-Paul Sartre
A Thousand Plateaus : Bloomsbury Revelations - Gilles Deleuze

RRP $54.99

$43.99

20%
OFF
Fear and Trembling : Penguin Books Great Ideas - Søren Kierkegaard
A Sand County Almanac : And Sketches Here and There - Aldo Leopold
The History of Sexuality: 1 : The Will to Knowledge - Michel Foucault
Being and Nothingness - Jean-Paul Sartre

$42.75

At The Existentialist Cafe : Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails - Sarah Bakewell
Existential Psychotherapy - Irvin Yalom

RRP $99.99

$70.99

29%
OFF
Phenomenology of Spirit : Galaxy Books - G. W. F. Hegel

RRP $44.95

$29.99

33%
OFF
The Human Condition : Second Edition - Hannah Arendt

RRP $42.95

$33.99

21%
OFF
The Joyous Science : Penguin Classics - Friedrich Nietzsche

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
In Ascension : Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023 - Martin MacInnes