Textual and Terminological Solutions for a New Slovene Translation of Saussure's Book

Abstract

The paper first presents conceptual and textual motivations and then translation solutions that inform a new Slovene edition of Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale (1916). This scientific text not only influenced the main directions in modern linguistics, but affected analytical thought in all areas of the humanities and social sciences. In collaboration with the editorial team, Saša Jerele, the translator, paid particular attention to the analysis of termino­logical dichotomies, the core of Saussure’s linguistic ideas. Following translation traditions, she considered the latest interpretations of this key text, which was condensed in the decade before the centennial of the original (2006-2016). The editor’s and translator’s reflections focus especially on the text’s title as well as the elementary dialectics of theoretical relations between language (langue) and speech (parole), signifier and signified, synchrony and diachrony, and the crucial concepts of the linguistic sign and its arbitrariness.