SOCIAL THEORY AND LANGUAGE. SAUSSURE AS A PASSAGE FROM THE CLASSIC TO THE CONTEMPORARY

Abstract

This article revisits Saussure’s work by highlighting the importance of his reflections
on social matters, as well as his decisive role in the transformation of social
theory. Specifically, it shows how Saussure lay the foundations for the passage from
Durkheimian functionalism to structuralism and poststructuralism. For this purpose,
we analyze his under-explored conceptions about social topics and reconstruct his
hypotheses about language as a social system of differences, pointing out the main
consequences for the understanding of the social as a whole.