Binary opposition is a common feature of the Western world and Ferdinad de Saussure, being of the Western world, writes this opposition into his concept of language. Then just how does the digital world change Saussure’s concept of language as a network of binary relationships? Well, one would need to agree with Saussure before answering this question. In 1957, Noam Chomksy changed the study of linguistics with Syntactic Structures, moving the field beyond Saussueran linguistics. As Norman K. Holland points out, even though many of Chomsky’s ideas are not accepted by all linguists, the “linguists who reject Chomsky claim to be going beyond Chomsky… (t)hey are not turning back to Saussure” (Holland 141). Holland goes further, stating “Saussure’s views are not held, so far as I know, by modern linguists, only by literary critics and the occasional philosopher” (Holland 141). In fact, there are many linguistic works that point out the shortfalls of Saussure’s ideas. In order to properly think about and criticize “digital” literature, we must move beyond the early 20th century ideas of the world and involve more contemporary ideas from other fields of knowledge.
Works Cited
Holland, Norman K. The Critical I. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.