Although It Is Almost Forgotten Today, 100 Years Ago René De Saussure Was an Eminent Mathematician with a Strong Interest in Language
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Feature The other Saussure The other Saussure Although it is almost forgotten today, 100 years ago René de Saussure was an eminent mathematician with a strong interest in language. Javier Alcalde examines the relationship between René and his brother Ferdinand. t is well-known that Both of them achieved Ferdinand de Saussure remarkable academic success. came from a very Today, Ferdinand is considered prominent Genevese the father of linguistics, but family, which included at the time René was also several historical figures. regarded as an eminent figure IFerdinand’s great-grandfather, in different fields, including Horace-Bénédict (1740–1799), mathematics and linguistics. was a geologist, physicist and For example, he was one of the pioneer of alpinism, who made regular participants in meetings sure that his three children organised by the International received the best progressive Auxiliary Language Association education available. Horace- (IALA) in the 1920s and 30s. Bénédict’s daughter Albertine These meetings sought to choose (1766–1841) became a pedagogue the best artificial language and early advocate of education among rivals such as Esperanto for women, while his son and Ido, putting René in the Nicolas-Théodore (1767–1845) company of other prominent was a chemist and pioneer of the linguists such as Otto Jespersen, study of photosynthesis. Horace- William Edward Collinson, Bénédict’s youngest, Alphonse Edgar de Wahl and Edward Sapir. (1770–1853), was the mayor of IALA had been founded by a Genthod (a municipality of the billionaire from the Vanderbilt Canton of Geneva) and father family and had many resources of Théodore and Henri; Henri to promote linguistic research, (1829–1905), a mineralogist, so it is not surprising that some René de Saussure. entomologist and taxonomist, of the main linguists of the time had nine children, among them were in those meetings. Ferdinand (1857–1913) and René In fact, René was a prominent (1868-1943). member of the Esperanto 22 Babel The Language Magazine | August 2016 Feature The other Saussure In 1890, René de Saussure René de Saussure and Esperanto was living in New York and At the turn of the 20th century, the idea of an international would send his manuscripts language played a relevant role in intellectual discussions to Ferdinand – then teaching in many domains, such as science, nationalism and the in Paris – in order to gain his possibility of peace in international relations. Esperanto, detailed, critical comments. In the language created by Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887, was the several of them, René’s main most promising among them, but it was not the only one. influence is a book by J. B. Stallo, In a ferocious struggle between different rivals, René de The Concepts and Theories of Saussure was a loyal and prominent member of the Esperanto Modern Physics (1882). René movement. In 1908, he rented the first office of the Universal comments extensively on Stallo’s Esperanto Association in Geneva. He was also the editor views on abstraction, linearity, of Internacia Scienca Revuo – the main scientific journal in time and sense perception. Esperanto – and the founding director of the International Stallo’s ideas included (a) the Esperantist Scientific Office, also established in Geneva. To consideration that physical defend the language from attacks by Ido supporters such as phenomena are abstractions Louis Couturat (Ido was another constructed language, one not perceptible to the senses, of Esperanto’s competitors), he published an analysis on the (b) that thought deals not with logic of word construction in Esperanto. A second and more things as they are but with our developed version was published in 1915, after discussions mental representation of them, with the French linguist Théophile Cart, a former student of Ferdinand’s. (c) and that objects are known only through their relations to other objects. René himself wrote about the relativity not movement and, among other Fifteen years previously, René only of the qualities perceived things, he wrote a very influential had been writing on the subject by our senses, but of the work on word creation in of multidimensional geometry, a notions conceived in our mind. Esperanto. Ferdinand, in his vibrant and interdisciplinary field These ideas recall Ferdinand’s posthumuous Course in General of research connected to Henri understanding of duration, time, Linguistics, approaches planned Bergson’s philosophical ideas linearity and abstractness. As languages from a fairly neutral (e.g. his concepts of duration he said to his student Léopold perspective, suggesting that they and intuition) and to Albert Gautier in 1911, “For now, general can be studied in the same way as Einstein’s theory of relativity, linguistics appears to me as a natural languages (the different which could also be described system of geometry”. means of their creation apart). as the relationship between At that time René was Another intellectual of the time, energy and the geometry of teaching a course in Geneva, in Edmond Privat, recalled René space and time. In 1922, Bergson the same faculty as Ferdinand, on explaining to him that he first and Einstein would have an the “History of the international encountered Esperanto when extremely influential public language movement from his brother asked him to attend debate about the nature of time. Descartes and Leibniz to the International Congress that As Ferdinand’s biographer John Esperanto”. René had just took place in Geneva in 1906, E. Joseph states, “In retrospect, published a persuasive work on coincidently the year of the first the solidity and importance of the logic of word construction Course on General Linguistics. the work René was undertaking in Esperanto. By doing so, he In Ferdinand’s view, René was is evident”. Similarly, Ferdinand’s was actually initiating scientific (mainly) a mathematician and student Albert Sechehaye studies of that language. therefore enjoyed a greater recalls that in the early 1890s According to Federico Gobbo, freedom to attend unorthodox Ferdinand was interested in the professor of Interlinguistics and linguistic gatherings, while he idea that what matters are not Esperanto at the University of himself – as a famous linguist – so much signs themselves as the Amsterdam, it is obvious that had to be prudent not to face the differences between signs which René’s research on Esperanto’s criticisms and prejudices of his constitute a play of oppositive morphology was known colleagues. René attended the values, that is, values capable of by Ferdinand. Not far from congress and became a fervent being put in opposition. This also Ferdinand’s idea of structure, Esperantist. points to the work of René. René’s analysis describes Babel The Language Magazine | August 2016 23 Feature The other Saussure The International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) In the struggle for an international language, billionaire Alice Vanderbilt Morris (1874-1950) played a crucial role. For the first time, there would be economic resources to support such a utopian movement. The only thing activists needed to do to take advantage of it was agree on which auxiliary language should be used. With this aim, and together with her husband Dave Hennen Morris and eminent intellectuals such as Frederick Gardner Cottrell, Vanderbilt established the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) in New York in 1924. Edward Sapir would become its first Research Director in 1930. Apart from Esperanto and Ido, other languages that were taken into scientific consideration were Latino sine flexione (proposed by Giuseppe Peano), Novial (presented by Otto Jespersen), Occidental (created by Edgar de Wahl), and Esperanto II (presented by René de Saussure). By 1925 René, like Jespersen and de Wahl, was no longer an Esperantist the different possibilities and had created his own international auxiliary language of constructing words by project, although he also worked to bridge the gap between combining smaller elements in a the different proposals. Although Vanderbilt had studied way that creates meaning. Esperanto, she remained neutral. However, an agreement Almost as a renaissance could not be reached and IALA developed a totally new thinker, René had other language, called Interlingua and published in 1951. In the end, accomplishments that could the outbreak of World War II and the death of Vanderbilt have influenced Ferdinand. For closed the window of opportunity for the movement for an example, he proposed in 1908 a international language. supranational neutral monetary system and an international currency called spesmilo, worth about 2 gold shillings. John E. Find out more Joseph in his comprehensive biography of Ferdinand considers Books John E. Joseph (2012) Saussure, Oxford University that the presence of ‘value’ as Press. a monetary metaphor in the Course of General Linguistics Roberto Garvía (2015) Esperanto and Its Rivals. The Struggle for an International Language, University of cannot be unconnected to the Pennsylvania Press. attention his brother René was gaining with his proposal. In fact, Jimena Canales (2015) The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That the spesmilo was used before the Changed Our Understanding of Time, by Jimena First World War by several British Canales, Princeton University Press. and Swiss banks, including the Ĉekbanko esperantista Articles Javier Alcalde is a (‘Esperantist Checking Bank’), Federico Gobbo (2014) ‘La fratoj de Saussure kaj Research Fellow Esperanto’. In Esperanto 1285 (11). a bank founded in 1907 by H.F. at Scuola Normale Höveler in London. Superiore di Pisa. Online These examples of René’s His research Andreas Künzli (2001) ‘René de Saussure (possible) traces in the pages interests include (1868-1943): Tragika sed grava esperantologo of the Course remind us that the history of kaj interlingvisto el Svislando’. In Studoj pri the Esperanto Ferdinand had a younger brother, interlingvistiko. Festlibro omaĝe al la 60-jariĝo movement and de Detlev Blanke / Studien zur Interlingvistik. another Saussure who is worth the emerging Festschrift für Detlev Blanke zum 60.