Former Fellows

The object of study is Ferdinand de Saussure’s implicit project for linguistic semiology. We propose a clear delimitation of a notion of semiology, distinguished from the notion of semiotics. The extent of this new notion of semiology would be explored by means of researching the early stages of structural linguistics as attested in Saussure’s writings, both published and manuscript. According to the initial presupposition, the revision of basic tenets of structuralism and semiotics with regards to Saussure’s original project of semiology would provide us with a new set of ideas about how to understand signification and human signifying activity as a whole. As an interpretative prism to this semiological framework, we propose to reconsider the problem of language materiality, since it is precisely the question of materiality that stands out in the latest research on Saussure’s legacy. As a subsequent step, this new semiological understanding, both of natural languages and of other signifying systems, could be applied to the research of literature – understood as an organised signification, – or even to other fields of human activities where signs are involved.