Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper aims to propose some considerations about the European structuralism schools and the exegetic history of the Saussurean texts, focusing on the relation between man and language. It will be argued that, against the current interpretation of Saussure as a promoter of the linguistique de la langue, his notes on the speaker’s judgement about the language and on metalanguage, show a very complex thought. This fact finds important developments in Karl Bühler’s and Émile Benveniste’s theories and in their connections with phenomenology.

In this article the thesis of a correlation between difficulties in the use of German phraseology by Italian mother tongue students and their metalinguistic awareness is investigated. On the basis of an empiric research the author suggests to increase the number of coordinated first and foreign language modules in university didactics.