SAUSSURE AND VYGOTSKY VIA MARX by GENEVIEVE VAUGHAN

This author suggests that the distinction diachrony/synchrony and that of langue/parole are directly comparable to similar distinctions made by the marginalists in the economic field. Most interesting perhaps is the parallel drawn by Ponzio between the langue as a system of values in a momentary state of equilibrium and the market seen in its static aspect by Pareto as a system of mutually dependent relations. In the present paper we will attempt to find out what kinds of consequences a Marxist theory of economic value would have for Saussure’s theory of linguistic value.