Saussure and Sechehaye: Myth and Genius, : A Study in the History of Linguistics and the Foundations of Language.

• Author: Pieter Seuren
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, , Boston: : Brill, , 2018.
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xi, 267 pages)

In this book, Pieter Seuren argues that Ferdinand de Saussure has been grossly overestimated over the past century, while his junior colleague Albert Sechehaye has been undeservedly ignored. Saussure was anything but the great innovator he is generally believed to be. Sechehaye was a genius providing many trenchant analyses and anticipating many modern insights. The lives and works of both men are discussed in detail and they are placed in the cultural, intellectual and social environment of their day. Much attention is paid to the theoretical issues involved, in particular to the notion and history of structuralism, to the great subject-predicate debate that dominated linguistic theory at the time, and to questions of methodology in the theory of language.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Contents / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Preface / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Introduction / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Who was Ferdinand de Saussure? / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- The Cours: A Critical Look / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Charles-Albert Sechehaye / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Sechehaye and the Great Subject-Predicate Debate / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Structuralism, Rationalism and Romanticism in Psychology and Linguistics / Pieter A.M. Seuren -- Conclusions / Pieter A.M. Seuren.