Ferdinand de Saussure is commonly regarded as one of the fathers of 20th Century Linguistics. His lectures, posthumously published as the Course in General Linguistics ushered in the structuralist mode which marked a key turning point in modern thought. Philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes, psychoanalysts such as Jacques Lacan, the anthropologist ClaudeLevi-Strauss and linguists such as Noam Chomsky all found an important influence for their work in the pages of Saussure's text. Published 100 years after Saussure's death, this new edition of Roy Harris's authoritative translation is now available in the Bloomsbury Revelations series with a substantial new introduction exploring Saussure's contemporary influence and importance.

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) was one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, whose work not only laid the foundations for important developments in linguistics but also proved widely influential in philosophy, anthropology, sociology and literary theory. The Course in General Linguistics is his most important work.

Roy Harris is Emeritus Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Oxford, UK.

Editor'sIntroduction, Roy Harris \ Introduction \ I. A Brief Survey of theHistory of Linguistics \ II. Data and Aims of Linguistics: Connexions withRelated Sciences \ III. The Object of Study \ IV. Linguistics of LanguageStructure and Linguistics of Speech \ V. Internal and External Elements of aLanguage \ VI Representation of a Language by Writing \ VII. PhysiologicalPhonetics \ Appendix: Principles ofPhysiological Phonetics \ I. Sound Types \ II. Sounds in Spoken Sequences \Part One: General Principles \ I.Nature of the Linguistic Sign \ II. Invariability and Variability of the Sign \III. Static Linguistics and Evolutionary Linguistics \ Part Two: Synchronic Linguistics \ I. General Observations \ II.Concrete Entities of a Language \ III. Identities, Realities, Values \ IV.Linguistic Value \ V. Syntagmatic Relations and Associative Relations \ VI. TheLanguage Mechanism \ VII. Grammar and Its Subdivisions \ VIII. AbstractEntities in Grammar \ Part Three:Diachronic Linguistics \ I. General Observations \ II. Sound Changes \ III.Grammatical Consequences of Phonetic Evolution \ IV. Analogy \ V. Analogy andEvolution \ VI. Popular Etymology \ VII. Agglutination \ VIII. Diachronic Units,Identities and Realities \ Appendices \ PartFour: Geographical Linguistics \ I. On the Diversity of Languages \ II.Geographical Diversity: Its Complexity \ III. Causes of Geographical Diversity\ IV. Propagation of Linguistic Waves \ PartFive: Questions of Retrospective Linguistics - Conclusion \ I. The TwoPerspectives of Diachronic Linguistics \ II. Earliest Languages and Prototypes\ III. Reconstructions \ IV. Linguistic Evidence in Anthropology and Prehistory\ V. Language Families and Linguistic Types \ Index.