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(2013) Lawyers making meaning II, Dordrecht, Springer.
Greimas, law, discourse and interpretative squares
the precursor de Saussure
Jan Broekman, Larry Catà Backer
pp. 53-56
The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) and the Lithuanian linguist Algirdas Julien Greimas (1917–1992) are proposed here: the latter as the second godfather of semiotics. Saussure made clear how structural properties of a language sustain its social functions—an important issue for legal semiotics. His famous differentiation of langue and parole plays a role here. The arbitrariness of signs is a further issue of importance.Both are leading ideas in Greimas' differentiation between surface- and deep structures of text and language in general.Lawyers, who are so much focusing on words and language, should be aware of those specificities. All these differentiations are a matter of contrast, and contrasts (indeed such as black and white, positive and negative) determine the meanings of linguistic expressions. So, often-concealed opposed meanings can be represented in square structures, which are an excellent medium of analysis of texts and other linguistic articulations. Greimas' analysis of a specific legal discourse exemplifies that approach. The qualification of legal discourse as "legal" implies the discursive organization of specific elements, in particular of acknowledged and institutionalized legal speech acts. The significance of text structure and square notation for practicing lawyers is theme of this chapter.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-5458-4_4
Full citation:
Broekman, J. , Catà Backer, L. (2013). Greimas, law, discourse and interpretative squares: the precursor de Saussure, in Lawyers making meaning II, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 53-56.
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