Structuralism appears
to make possible the establishment of autonomous and objective human sciences,
because it provides them with their own independent and objective fields of
study. As such, structuralism in linguistics means a new approach to the facts already
known. The structural mode of linguistics introduces us to the langue
and parole.
Langue
according to Saussure is the totality of a language, deducible from an
examination of the memories of all the language users, that is,
Langue is the system or structure of a language.
In other words, we can
say, it is a language structure which consists of vocabulary, principles of
construction, idioms, rules of pronunciation etc. According to Saussure,
Langue is both a social product of the faculty of
speech and a collection of necessary conventions that have been adopted by a
social body to permit individuals to exercise that faculty.
Therefore, langue is a
corporate social phenomenon. It is homogenous whereas, language is
heterogeneous. We can study it as it is concrete. It is a system of linguistic
signs which are not abstract but real entities, tangible to be reduced to
conventional written symbols. As stated by Hjelmslev, the term langue as used
by Saussure includes three different concepts-
(1) The
language scheme.
(2) The
language norm and
(3) The
language custom.
Ultimately, langue
has to be related to parole which is the actual usage of individuals
that a community manifests in its everyday speech, the actual concrete act of
speaking on the part of an individual, the controlled or uncontrolled
psychological activity. Thus, Parole is the activity of speaking in a language
or actual speech. In words of Saussure,
Parole is an individual act…wilful and
intellectual.
It is the only object
available for direct observation to the linguist. Utterances are instances of
parole. As such it follows that,
Parole is a personal, dynamic, social activity
which exists at a particular time and place and in a particular situation as
opposed to langue which exists apart from any particular manifestation in
speech.
Therefore, to
summarize, langue is the system of language- all the possible rules that make
up the language in theory. Whereas, parole is how these rules are put into
action by the speakers of that language.
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