Saussureanism in Latin America in the Twentieth Century

• Published in: Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 2003-01, Vol.56, p.165-176
• Main Authors: De Lemos, Claudia, Lier-De Vitto, Maria Francisca, Andrade, Lourdes, Silveira, Eliane Mara
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• ISSN: 0068-516X

The reception of Ferdinand de Saussure's Cours de linguistique generale ([Course in General Linguistics] Paris: Payot, 1916) & linguistic conceptions in Latin America is discussed, identifying three linguists who contributed most to the dissemination of Saussurean linguistics on this continent: (1) Amado Alonso, at whose initiative the Cours was translated & published for the first time in a Latin American country (Argentina) & who wrote a very seminal introduction for this work (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1945), (2) Eugenio Coseriu, who introduced Saussure to Uruguay during his professorship at the U of Montevideo in the years 1951-1963; several works by this Romanian linguist are mentioned, showing how they elaborate Saussurean structuralism, & (3) Mattoso Camara Jr., the father of Brazilian linguistics, who recognized the significant role of Ferdinand de Saussure in founding structuralist linguistics, with which he became familiarized, during his sojourn in New York, through Bloomfieldian & Jakobsonian, ie, American & European, respectively, brands of structuralism. The decline of interest in Saussurean conceptions in Latin America during the 1970s is noted. 29 References. Z. Dubiel