Questions, questions, and questions?

“The characteristic role of language with respect to thought is not to create a material phonic means of expressing ideas but to serve as a link between thought and sound” (de Saussure 2004, 6).

De Saussure text talks a lot about interdependence: the interdependence of thought and sound and the interdependence of signified and signifier. Together, thought and sound create language, and signified and signifier help determine value.

As a bilingual individual, I constantly find myself on the edge of different languages. Since I am currently learning a third language, this sphere of languages and the exchange between them increases. I cannot pinpoint the language that form my thoughts and dreams anymore, it varies and it changes all the time. I use different languages for different emotions and expressions as well. After our class discussion of Thursday, I realized that many times I cannot translate a feeling I have in English to Portuguese, or vice-versa. It feels like as I learn more languages, more alternative universes open up for me, with new cultures, feelings, and manners of expression.

After the class discussion and my own meditation on the subject, I think I understand better what de Saussure means by saying that thought and sound (and signifier and signified) are inseparable and interdependent. But I also wonder why I can experience certain feelings and emotions in different languages. If the connection is arbitrary, and if humans were all inherently the same with equal emotions, why isn’t every word and thought translatable? I am sure de Saussure has an answer to my question, so hopefully I will be able to grasp this concept in my next reading of him. Maybe different cultures engender different experiences and emotions.

Another question that popped in my head after the class discussion relates to sign language. De Saussure doesn’t address this topic. People with impaired hearing can still communicate with language, even though the sound and the words do not connect. I wonder what happens inside their minds and how they create that connection.