Abstract

Several representatives of structuralism relate the concept of structure to the langue of Ferdinand de Saussure. And so a linguistic approximation to structuralism seems possible. Such an approximation makes sense for another reason : because of the growing importance of transformational linguistics and the criticism of structuralism expressed by Noam Chomsky. In this article the main ideas of de Saussure and Chomsky are analysed, resulting in the confrontation of langue (de Saussure) and competence (Chomsky). Chomsky's criticism of langue as "a store of concepts" seems to be correct. The relevance of this criticism for the central structuralist topic that individual man, his freedom and his history are of minor importance, is pointed out.