The nature of language in the views of Saussure and Farabi

With the critique of the historical-comparative trends surrounding language, Saussure sets intralingual elements as his point of departure. In his view, the realized and dynamic nature of language does not reflect its true nature. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the static aspect of language or the synchronic approach to language. Saussure, under the influence of Kant's epistemology, separates the domains of language into langage, langue and parole, and restricts the concrete object, or in some way language principles, to the langue. Farabi has explored linguistic reflections in the tradition of Islamic philosophy in a close relation with Saussure. He begins his linguistic studies with a fresh and new reading of the associations between language and logic. By arguing that speech (notgh) and logic (mantegh) are derived from the same root, he traces back the origin of logic to language. In the idea of Farabi, speech is the fundamental and general aspect of language. He summarized three realms of language into rational soul (Nafs-e Nateghe), inner word and outer word, where the inner word is home to linguistic elements. Irrespective of this issue, in semiotics, the relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary in a way that is comparable to that of speech and logic. The present paper, by delving into three domain of language proposed by Saussure, seeks to exhibit that this structuralist conception is not new. For centuries, in the tradition of Islamic philosophy, Farabi has elaborated on such reflections. Farabi's notion of dividing linguistic signs into two parts of speech and logic and the tripartite division of language offers a new conception of linguistics, which marks the beginning of a new trend of studies in Islamic linguistics