Albert Sechehaye

Albert Sechehaye (July 4th 1870 - July 2nd 1946), born and deceased with Geneva, was Linguiste Suisse, one of theoreticians of the Genevese linguistic school.

Life

Student of the University of Geneva where its tutor since 1891 is Ferdinand de Saussure, Sechahaye is trainee with Goettingue (1893 - 1902) and prepares a German thesis on the Imparfait of the subjunctive French. After the training course, he teaches in Geneva until his death, and becomes professor only in 1939 when he succeeds Charles Bally.

Raises or Master of Saussure?

Sechehaye is most known as raises of Saussure and Co-editor, with Bally, of its work posthumous founder Cours of general linguistics in 1916. Their role in the creation of the traditional text was considerable, because some ideas of CLG miss in the notebooks of the students and the manuscripts saussuriens and can be had to the editors. But it was Sechehaye which had already published, in 1908, a book which contained already some structuralist ideas and a whole program of synchronic linguistics and Phonologie. This book was known of Saussure which includes, only after 1909, in its conferences the sections relating to synchrony and diachrony. Thus some ideas, found in parallel by Sechehaye and Saussure, receive an international glory under the name of the last, while the work of Sechehaye was a long time in a darkness semi-volunteer. There exists now even a sight of Saussure like " raise of Sechehaye" , proposed by P. Wunderli; it is of course an exaggeration, but a great role of Sechehaye in creation of structuralism should not be neglected.

Linguistic ideas

The book of 1908 was the first text published by Sechehaye after its German thesis: Program and methods of the theoretical linguistics , dedicated to Saussure. The author proposes a programme of a construction of linguistics like " science of lois" opposed to the " science of faits" Positiviste recommended by the Linguistic history of the time. According to Sechehaye, the " science of lois" is achronic and universal, while the concrete facts of the history of language, including the sound laws, are out-systematic. All the registers are dividés in sections " statiques" and " dynamiques" or " évolutives" (static phonology, evolutionary morphology, etc). The states " statiques" are primary, the changes or evolutions cannot be included/understood without the static considerations.

Sechehaye proposes ideas on the origins of the linguistic changes, a design of Phonologie quasi-" algebraïque" and of language pregrammatic (by example that of children). He recommends a research Psychologique phenomena of language.

Its second book of 1926 Essai on the logical structure of sentence considers the logical Syntaxe and its standards. In the articles of the years 1920-1940 Sechehaye specifies the design of Saussure and proposes a " linguistics of word organisée".

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