Study questions for De Saussure and Jakobson:

1. What is the distinction between "language" (langue) and "speech" (parole)? What is the relationship between an individual speaker and language?

2. What are the parts of the sign as de Saussure defines "sign"? What is the relationship between them?

3. How does de Saussure's theory of the sign differ from the common and older way of talking about signs?

4. Why is it difficult, according to de Saussure, to establish the precise "units" that a linguist must examine? How does he respond to this problem of delimitation?

5. What implications might positing "arbitrariness" as a characteristic of signs hold for the way we look at ourselves and the world around us?

6. What is, or will be, the province and mission of the science to be called semiology"?

Why is the label of “literary critic” an erroneous one, according to Jakobson?

7. The famous definition by Jakobson of the poetic language - what did he mean when he wrote about these two axes?

8. Explain the six functions of language according to Jakobson.

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