Thread:User talk:WaitingforGodot/de Saussure (linguistics question for ya)/reply

When you take linguistics 101, you will not really hear the name Saussure, simply because what he said that is valuable has been so absorbed into linguistics it becomes the very way we talk about languages and their study. Sign (signifier and signified) are how we talk about units of speech/language, though today, we often add referents. The challenge to this idea, when we really start looking at how humans use language, is that our world is not so direct or simple. we can "fill in the black" of both signified and signifier without hesitation, change their referent from something literal and direct to something uniques and abstract with a single glance, gesture, tone of voice, etc. But it's still critical at a 101 level.

I'm not sure if that answered it. Yes, his good stuff has been absorber, his bad stuff discarded, and you won't really hear about him till you say "ok, i'm ready to study this field" and start in on the history of the field itself.