How and Why Saussure is Misread in China: A Historical Study

As father of modern linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure has been known in China for more than eighty years. A historical review of Saussurean studies in China indicates that some misunderstandings on Saussure need to be cleared up. This paper mainly focuses on how Chinese scholars misread Saussure from the perspective of the arbitrary nature of language and points out that motivation or iconicity is not contradictory to arbitrariness in Saussurean linguistics. It also shows that Chinese historical developments have had profound effects on the reception of Saussure. To some extent, politics, culture, and education in China are responsible for the misinterpretations of Saussure. Misreading Saussure just reflects that there is still a long way to go for the study of Saussure in the Chinese linguistics world.