ABSTRACT
The theory of the syntagm casts a whole new light upon the role of parole. Saussure’s focus is all upon langue, upon the socially shared system that underlies particular utterances. On Saussure’s view, particular utterances are little more than the droppings of langue-as though speaking a sentence were merely a matter of selecting a small number of verbal items out of a very large catalogue. The social and conventional side of language dominates until it becomes difficult to see how one person can ever communicate something that another person does not already share. But now we can recognize that parole has a power of its own. Certainly, the meaning of each single word that goes into an utterance is predetermined by the socially shared system-in which respect, langue is larger than parole. But in an utterance, the meaning of each single word is itself subjected to the demands of combination with other neighbouring words-and in this respect, parole is larger than langue. Parole has the power of the syntagm.
