The concept of functional opposition in general linguistics, 1916-1966: methodological status and technicaldescriptive relevance.

Although “difference” as an undefined, almost intuitive concept has played a role in linguistic thought and practice from the early beginnings, it was only in the 20th century that a “technical”, operational concept of fundamental axiomatic importance for linguistic description was formulated and argued for in terms of “differential” and “oppositional” relationship. The Cours of F. de Saussure (1916) systematizes this concept, specifically in terms of “value”. The concept was then reformulated by the leading linguists of the 20th century; the research project, focusing on the period 1916-1966 (covering the emergence, diffusion and heydays of European structuralism) proposes an in-depth analysis of the concept of “opposition” in the various (national and supranational) traditions of European structuralism. Although with the ascent of the generative program and – later – cognitive grammar and pragmatic approaches the importance given to structural analysis has decayed, most of present-day linguistic models make use, under different theoretical configurations, of an “oppositional” principle or concept, and authors working in different frames integrate it in their respective model. A methodological-epistemological study, rooted in a solid historiographical approach of the way in which this notion, operational in the dominant linguistic paradigms of the 20th century, acquired an axiomatic status and a “technical” purport, would be an important contribution to general linguistics.