What is Semiotics?

Ferdinand de Saussure’s Linguistic Revolution

Semiotics is one of the cornerstones of so-called Continental Philosophy. No tradition other than Phenomenology had more influence on shaping the landscape of this tradition in the 20th century.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols derived from the work of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure’s background was in comparative and historical linguistics; he was an expert in the study of Indo-European languages.

In a series of courses that he gave at the University of Geneva, Saussure outlined his proposition for a new field of study that would be a science of language. The scholarly study of languages at the time was dominated by what is known as philology. Philology however was a historical study of languages but what Saussure was proposing was a scientific study of living language.

The Swiss linguist delivered this Course on General Linguistics only three times –1907, 1909 and 1911. He never published anything on the subject because he always felt that his work was too tentative and that he hadn’t found the solid ground worthy of publishing.

But, after his death in 1913, a group of students and colleagues of Saussure’s took their notes on his course and compiled them into a book called Course on General Linguistics…