ABSTRACT
In this chapter I shall argue that Saussure attempts to construct a unitary or self-consistent, rather than a totalizing, social-semiological metatheory. The Italian linguist Raffaele Simone (1992b: 169) has pointed out that in CLG Saussure attempts to show that the language system, or langue, is just one instance of a more general class of semiological systems. Saussure aims to develop a theory of the language system which is founded on a more general social-semiological theory of sign systems of all types (Simone 1992b: 171). The metatheory which Saussure proposes is general in the sense that the theoretical terms and the relations among these are intended as a means for talking about languages of all types. That is, specific languages are seen as instances of a more general class of social-semiological system.
