The thesis is a systematic study of newly discovered autographic materials by F. de Saussure, which enabled a revision of traditional understanding of the fundamental provisions of his scientific conception in the linguistics of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. From the functional and pragmatic positions, the ontological, epistemological and methodological foundation of F. de Saussure’s understanding of semiosis, linguistic activity as an object of linguistics is reviewed, the notions of language, speech, sign, relation, difference, significance, and a number of other notions that are the key to the conception of the Swiss linguist have been redefined.
The actuality of the topic is the gradual change the in modern linguistics general trend towards the direction of anthropocentrism and systemic-discursive actionable analysis of language experience, the foundations of which were laid by
F. de Saussure in his autographic materials. Saussure was far ahead of his time, and because of this he was misinterpreted by the publishers of the «Course of General Linguistics», as well as by the number of the twentieth century linguists.
The scientific novelty of the dissertation research is not only that the paper presents the analysis of new, not published in either the Ukrainian or Russian languages of autographic materials by F. de Saussure. Considering the newly discovered autographic materials (2002), the linguistic conception of F. de Saussure requires, on the one hand, a careful revision of its fundamental provisions outlined in the «Course of General Linguistics» of 1916, and on the other hand, requires such an objective generalization which would allow us to introduce the «new» Saussure in linguistics.
The problem of interpretation of the scientific conception of F. de Saussure in the linguistics of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods was investigated in the paper. It is known that the work of the «Course of General Linguistics» was written by his colleagues A. Scheche and S. Ballie and contained largely their interpretation of the views of the scientist.
It is found that as a result of the simplified representation of the «Course» as a book by F. de Saussure there were stable mythological beliefs in the mass consciousness of the Soviet and post-Soviet (native and Russian) linguists, that the “Course” was written by Saussure himself, or it was the text based on the texts of the lectures by the scientist and that this text accurately conveys Saussure’s conception, which is the heart of structuralism as a unified and holistic linguistic conception, and Saussure is its founder; in the textbooks and encyclopedias of linguistics the main provisions of Saussure’s conceptions were precisely described and correctly interpreted, so there is no need to read and analyze the manuscript inheritance of the scientist, since it does not make anything significant in the already existing view of Saussure’s conception. Published in 2002 the autographic Saussure materials confirm that the «Course of General Linguistics» veils, significantly distorts, and sometimes even contradicts the ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure.
It is found that for F. de Saussure the basic and complete object of linguistics is not langue (language), namely langage (linguistic activity) as an integral dynamic system of symbolic relations, as linguosemiotic activity of a person, one of the forms of his/her semiotic activity. The concept of language is analyzed on the background of concrete contexts of the term langue use in Saussure’s manuscripts. They clearly indicate that this term is perceived by the scientist as the name of anthropocentric semiological instrument in contrast to (but not in opposition) to the terms of parole (statement) and discours (speech) as the names of actions and events of the expressive and communicative nature, during which this instrument is used.
