Ontology and Phenomenology in Saussure’s Thought

Abstract

Which is the statute of value in Saussure’s thought? The question leads us to look and first determine different semantic places in his manuscript texts. To both metaphysical and epistemological examinations of knowledge proposed by Simon Bouquet, there thus corresponds two orders of apprehension of linguistic realities: one ontological and the other phenomenological. The concept of linguistic value assigns to language a negative ontology. It has as an equivalent the enigmatic notion of negative category and is found to be expressed in the phenomenological order under the relationship of linguistic forms.