DE LA PENSÉE SAUSSURIENNE À L'ENSEIGNEMENT COSÉRIEN

Abstract

Under the syntagm of "language sciences", the object of study of linguistics seems to fade away, to disappear little by little in the numerous research axes of the discipline. The terminological couple Language (as defined by Saussure)/Language(s) (in terms of pragmatics) encourages and at the same time facilitates the withdrawal from the "classical, traditional direction" of analysis. On the other hand, the linguistic/language binomial allows one to understand language and its functioning, generating well-focused analyses, based on specific principles. Antoine Meillet’s assertion that "Language in itself and for itself", echoing Saussure's way of thinking, seems to deviate in some way from the investigative interest of linguists. Language is 'validated' by the context and the analysis models change according to the corpora. The application of the computer tool, hic et nunc, to the facts of language, contributes to the creation of the feeling of hyper-flexibility of linguistic investigation in conditions where the historical unity of linguistics is cast doubt upon. 
This explains, on the one hand, the reflections of André Martinet in his Memoirs of a linguist in 1993, who said that "we are in the process of forgetting the existence of linguistics" and that "we must try to bring together, without exception, those who feel a little lost". The return to Saussurean thought and to Coserian teaching seems to enlighten us again on the path of metamorphosis of their ideas.