O nome próprio nas elaborações de Ferdinand de Saussure

Abstract

The main goal in this master thesis is to understand how the proper name is considered in Ferdinand de Saussure s elaboration. This linguistic category can be considered as one of the thorniest problems in language studies. And this for two main reasons: i .it is heterogeneous and does not have a general rule which may be applied to all natural languages, ii. its constitution involves complex aspects, such as the arbitrariness and speech. This way, we performed a theoretical path for the nineteenth century language studies, emphasizing J. S. Mill s and G. Frege s theories, within the philosophy , and WD Whitney s and M. Breal1s, under Linguistics. The scholars choice is justified because they attach to the proper names a prominent place in their theories and they are Ferdinand de Saussure s contemporary. Thus, the study of these authors theories provided the evidence to question Ferdinand de Saussure s position on this linguistic category. Whereas Saussure\'s production was not restricted to the Course in General Linguistics, comprising also comparatist studies, the manuscripts on linguistics and on Germanic Legends, we investigate Saussure s considerations in four materials: i.in CLG, ii. three communications which was taken at the Société d Histoire et Archéologie de Gènéve that had as focus on the toponomies, iii. the notes on Notes Item. Sôme et sème manuscript; and finally, iv. Saussure s studies on Germanic Legends. Through the analysis of these materials, we realized that the proper name was treated by Ferdinand de Saussure in two distinct ways: as a single word and as a relational word. This duplicity in Saussure s treatment at this linguistic category shows that it is, indeed, a complex category which offers difficulties in its delimitation and it participates in an important theoretical inquires about the linguistic functioning in Ferdinand de Saussure s theory.