biology

Geneva school (linguistics)

Geneva school (linguistics) is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Geneva school (linguistics) rather than just read about it. In short: The Geneva School was a school of linguistics that emphasized the structural and functional aspects of language. It developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Key takeaways

Geneva school (linguistics) belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Geneva school (linguistics) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Geneva school (linguistics) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Geneva School was a school of linguistics that emphasized the structural and functional aspects of language. It developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

History The most prominent figure of the Geneva School was Ferdinand de Saussure. Other important colleagues and students of Saussure who comprise this school include Albert Sechehaye, Albert Riedlinger, Sergei Kartsevski and Charles Bally.

Saussure

The most significant linguistic book connected with this school is Cours de linguistique générale (1916), the main work of de Saussure, which was published by his students Charles Bally and Albert Sehechaye. The book was based on lectures with this title that de Saussure gave three times in Geneva from 1906 to 1912. Sehechaye and Bally did not themselves take part in these lecture classes, but they used notes from other students. The most important of these students was Albert Riedlinger, who provided them with the most material. Furthermore, Bally and Sehechaye continued to develop de Saussure's theories, mainly focusing on the linguistic research of speech. Sehechaye also concentrated on syntactic problems.

Bally

In addition to his edition of de Saussure's lectures, Charles Bally also played an important role in linguistics. He lived from 1865 to 1947 and was, like de Saussure, from Switzerland. His parents were Jean Gabriel, a teacher and Henriette, the owner of a cloth store. Bally was married three times: first with Valentine Leirens, followed by Irma Baptistine Doutre, who was sent into a mental institution in 1915 and Alice Bellicot. From 1883 to 1885 he studied classic language and literature in Geneva. He continued his studies from 1886 to 1889 in Berlin where he was awarded a PhD. After his studies he worked as a private teacher for the royal family of Greece from 1889 to 1893. Bally returned to Geneva and taught at a business school from 1893 on and moved to the Progymnasium, a grammar school, from 1913 to 1939. At the same time, he worked as PD at the university from 1893 to 1913. Finally from 1913 to 1939 he had a professorship for general linguistic and comparative Indo-German studies which he took over from Ferdinand de Saussure. Besides his works about subjectivity in the French Language he also wrote about the crisis in French language and language classes. Today Charles Bally is regarded as the founding-father of linguistic theories of style and much honored for his theories of phraseology.

References

Further reading Charles Bally, Traité de stylistique française, 1909 Charles Bally, Le Langage et la Vie, 1913 Charles Bally, Linguistique générale et linguistique française, 1932 G. Redard, Bibliographie chronologique des publications de Charles Bally, in Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 36, 1982, 25–41 W. Hellmann, Charles Bally, 1988 S. Durrer, Introduction à la linguistique de Charles Bally, 1998

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Geneva school (linguistics)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Geneva school (linguistics) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Geneva school (linguistics) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Geneva school (linguistics) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Geneva school (linguistics)

In research: Geneva school (linguistics) appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Geneva school (linguistics) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Geneva school (linguistics) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century establishments, Linguistics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Geneva school (linguistics) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Geneva school (linguistics) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Geneva school (linguistics) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Geneva school (linguistics) in simple terms?

The Geneva School was a school of linguistics that emphasized the structural and functional aspects of language. It developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Why does Geneva school (linguistics) matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Geneva school (linguistics)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Geneva school (linguistics).