Langue and Parole – By Ferdinand de Saussure

-


Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, introduced the terms langue and parole in his book Course in General Linguistics (1916). These two concepts are very important in the study of language and are central to structuralist theory.

1. Langue (Language System)

  • Definition:
    Langue is the system of language — the set of rules, grammar, vocabulary, and conventions shared by a speech community.

  • Features:

    • It is social, not personal.
    • It is fixed and structured.
    • It exists in the minds of speakers.
    • It is not spoken directly, but it is the base that makes speech possible.

  • Example:
    In English, we know the rule that a sentence like:
    "She goes to school."
    is correct according to subject-verb agreement rules. This rule is part of langue.

    Similarly, all English speakers understand what the word “tree” means — this common understanding comes from langue.

2. Parole (Speech or Utterance)

  • Definition:
    Parole is the individual and actual use of language — the way someone speaks or writes at a particular moment.

  • Features:

    • It is personal and creative.
    • It is variable and changing.
    • It is what we hear and read in real communication.
    • It includes tone, pronunciation, pauses, errors, etc.

  • Example:
    Someone says:
    "She go to school every day."
    This sentence breaks the rule of subject-verb agreement (goes should be used), but it is still an example of parole — how a person actually speaks.

    Another example:
    A poet may write a line like:
    "The moon whispers secrets into the night."
    This creative use of language is parole, even though it follows the grammar of langue.

Conclusion:

Ferdinand de Saussure’s division between langue and parole helped scholars understand that language is not just speech but a structured system. He believed that linguists should focus more on langue, the stable system, rather than parole, which is unpredictable. This idea laid the foundation for modern linguistics and influenced fields like literature, anthropology, and philosophy.  


IN EASY WORDS

The concepts of langue and parole were introduced by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in his book Course in General Linguistics. These terms form the foundation of structural linguistics.

  • Langue (French for "language") refers to the structured system of rules, grammar, and conventions shared by a community. It is the social, collective aspect of language. Langue exists in the minds of speakers and is what makes communication possible.

  • Parole (French for "speech") refers to the individual use of language in actual speech or writing. It includes the personal, creative, and situational expressions of language by a speaker.

Example:
If langue is like the rules of chess, then parole is how a person plays a particular game.

Key Points:

  • Langue = system; Parole = individual speech
  • Langue is social and stable; Parole is personal and variable
  • Saussure focused more on langue for linguistic analysis because it reveals the underlying structure of language

These two ideas helped establish the modern study of language as a structured, rule-governed system.

Popular posts from this blog

"Cry, the Peacock": A Detailed Summary and Analysis

-
Introduction Cry, the Peacock is Anita Desai ’s first novel. It was published in 1963. The novel explores a woman’s emotional struggles and her experience of loneliness and despair. The story focuses on Maya, the main character, and her troubled marriage. She suffers from isolation and mental instability. Anita Desai presents the fragility of the human mind and the difficulties of marriage. Brief Summary The novel takes place in post-independence India. However, the story focuses more on personal struggles than political events. Maya is a young woman who lives with her husband, Gautama. Gautama is a practical and intellectual man. He does not show emotions, and he does not understand Maya’s feelings. Maya is sensitive and emotional. She wants love and affection, but Gautama does not give her the attention she needs. Maya feels lonely and neglected. She spends most of her time thinking about her life. She creates fantasies in her mind to escape her loneliness. One important symbol in t...
Read more

Phonetics and Phonology : Definition and difference

-
Phonetics and phonology are two closely related subfields of linguistics that both deal with the sounds of speech, but they focus on different aspects of these sounds. Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds, specifically how they are produced, transmitted, and perceived. It is concerned with the actual sounds themselves—how they are articulated, how they travel through the air as sound waves, and how they are received by the ear and processed by the brain. Phonetics is typically divided into three subfields: 1. Articulatory Phonetics : This branch focuses on the physical production of speech sounds. It looks at the movements of the vocal organs (such as the tongue, lips, and vocal cords) and how these movements create different speech sounds. It studies how different places and manners of articulation (e.g., voicing, nasality, consonant types like stops or fricatives) contribute to the production of speech. 2. Acoustic Phonetics : This branch is concerned w...
Read more

Dhwani Theory by Anandvardhana: an introduction

-
Anandvardhana was a Kashmiri court poet and literary critic, honored with the title of Rajanak during King Avantivarman's reign.  Anandavardhana authored the Dhvanyāloka , or A Light on Suggestion (dhwani), a work articulating the philosophy of "aesthetic suggestion" (dhwani, vyañjanā). Anandavardhana is credited with creating the dhwani theory. He wrote that dhwani (meaning sound, or evocation) is the "soul" or "essence" (ātman) of poetry (kavya).  Anandavardhana said, "When the poet writes, he creates a eloquent field of emotions." To understand the poetry, the reader or hearer must be on the same wavelength. Important points~ •Dhvani theory is a theory of suggestion that is considered to be the soul of poetry.  •The theory of Dhvani is a major contribution to Sanskrit literary theory.  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that the main goal of good poetry is to evoke a mood or "flavor" (rasa).  •The theory of Dhvani suggests that this...
Read more