Linguistics: Structuralism

Linguistic structuralism is a theory of signs that identifies the locus of meaning in human communication within a network of arbitrary representations. Structuralists are concerned with the system of signs in a given language rather than the particular instances of communication. Structuralism is a rejection of traditional theories of the origin of language. Meaning is generated through the use of arbitrary signs in language. Spoken language is constituted by structures of difference in sound that allow for the possibility of phonetic writing. Early 20th-century linguists emphasized sound in the study of language and dismissed sign language as physical manifestations of oral speech. Expanded linguistic scholarship propelled the examination of language as a key to understanding culture. Anthropologists extended the structural linguistic methodology to examine symbolic meaning in culture as evidence of language structures.

The use of signs creates both intentional and unintentional meanings. Each sign implicates other signs. Linguistic structuralism begins by asking how and why language has meaning. Why do words yield repeatable communicative meaning? If we ask what gives sign language meaning, the first step is to explain how and why sign language is a unique language. The application of linguistic structuralism to Deaf Studies opens new horizons for understanding communication in Deaf culture. To understand the present role of structural linguistics within the Deaf community, a review of the basic principles of structural linguistics from its origin to the internal, self-reflexive turn of the French philosophers is necessary.

The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) developed the initial theory of linguistics in a series of lectures that culminated in a posthumously published compilation of student notes in the influential text Course in General Linguistics in 1916. Structuralism moves away from the historical or diachronic models of language development in favor of a scientific model of linguistics. The synchronic approach examines language as it is in its current and static construction and the internal relation among the signs. Key to the concept is that the relations among the signs are more important than the individual signs. Language is a system of interrelated meanings driven by established social agreements, a depository of signs. The field identifies language (langue) as a network of signs distinct from the specific [Page 648]communication or speech acts (parole). Structuralists then, lay out the parameters of study by restricting the analysis to the network of signs, not individual acts of speech. The distinction between the speech act and a closed network of signs enables studies in meaning independent of situational factors.

The basic unit for analysis is parsed into two parts: sound and meaning. The phonemic or sound component is the sign, and the meaning or conceptual piece is the signified. A signifier is the instance of communication such as an utterance, a word, or a mark on a page, whereas a signified is a concept. There is no necessary connection between the sign and signified; the relationship is arbitrary. This accounts, for example, for the differences in various languages. The word book has no literal external connection to the concept it refers to in English. Nor does the Spanish term libro have any external relation to the thing to which it refers. That the connection between the signified and signifier is arbitrary is an essential defining characteristic of language. Book has meaning to an English speaker because of the differences that exist within the network of signs. A book is not a nook. Each sign in a system gathers meaning and precision from the differences between other signs in the system. Communicative meanings are generated by the binary opposition of or the differences between signs within a given system.

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