Page 3 - Task 2

Stefany Espinosa

Step 1

Phrase 5 of Ferdinand Saussure

Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results
solely from the simultaneous presence of the others… [for example]. To determine
what a five-franc piece is worth one most know: (1) that it can be exchanged for a
fixed quantity of a different thing, e.g. bread; and (2) that it can be compared with
a similar value of the same system, e.g. a one-franc piece, or with coins of another
system (a dollar, etc.). In the same way a word can be exchange for something of the
same nature, another word, its value is therefore not fixed so long as one simply

states that it can be ´exchanged´ for a given concept. ´

Answer: The object of Saussurian theory is the linguistic, and the concept of sign is its
expression, taken from our tradition. This is established by the principle, according to
which, “language as a system of interdependent signs, in which the value of each term
results only from the simultaneous presence of the others (CLG, 146). The word is part

of a system and is covered not only with a meaning, but also, and above all, with a value
(CLG, 145).

Introduction to the linguistics