The interaction of linguistic signs in light of Saussurean structural theory

Abstract

Describing the linguistic system, understanding its mechanisms, and explaining and analyzing the mental linguistic processes before and during speech are central concerns for modern linguists of various intellectual and methodological backgrounds. This article examines one of the mechanisms by which natural languages operate according to de Saussure’s structuralist theory, as part of the linguistic system’s function, by focusing on the constant interaction between linguistic signs within the system, whether that interaction is implicit between signs in the mind or explicit between signs at the spoken surface level. These are termed the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between linguistic signs. Saussure’s early perspective on how the linguistic apparatus works can be seen as a nucleus for linguists’ orientation in the second half of the 20th century, especially with the transformational generative theory.