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Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in
linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach (from grc, συν- "together" and "time") considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. Synchronic linguistics aims at describing a language at a specific point of time, often the present. In contrast, a ''diachronic'' (from "through" and "time") approach, as in
historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...
, considers the development and evolution of a language through history. For example, the study of
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
—when the subject is temporally limited to a sufficiently homogenous form—is synchronic focusing on understanding how a given stage in the history of English functions as a whole. The diachronic approach, by contrast, studies
language change Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identify ...
by comparing the different stages. The terms synchrony and diachrony are often associated with historical linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure (; ; 26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widel ...
, who considered the synchronic perspective as systematic but argued that language change is too unpredictable to be considered a system.


Conceptual development

The concepts were theorized by the
Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, professor of general linguistics in
Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
from 1896 to 1911, and appeared in writing in his posthumous ''
Course in General Linguistics ''Course in General Linguistics'' (french: Cours de linguistique générale) is a book compiled by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye from notes on lectures given by historical-comparative linguist Ferdinand de Saussure at the University of Gene ...
'' published in 1916. Saussure's teachers in historical-comparative and reconstructive linguistics such as
Georg Curtius Georg Curtius (April 16, 1820August 12, 1885) was a German philologist and distinguished comparativist. Biography Curtius was born in Lübeck, and was the brother of the historian and archeologist Ernst Curtius. After an education at Bonn and ...
advocated the neo-grammarian manifesto according to which linguistic change is based on absolute laws. Thus, it was argued that ancient languages without surviving data could be reconstructed limitlessly after the discovery of such laws. In contradiction to his predecessors, Saussure demonstrated with multiple examples in his ''Course'' that such alleged laws are too unreliable to allow reconstructions far beyond the empirical data. Therefore, in Saussure's view, language change (diachrony) does not form a system. By contrast, each synchronic stage is held together by a systemic equilibrium based on the interconnectedness of meaning and form. To understand why a language has the forms it has at a given stage, both the diachronic and the synchronic dimension must be considered. Saussure likewise rejected the idea of the Darwinian linguists
August Schleicher August Schleicher (; 19 February 1821 – 6 December 1868) was a German linguist. His great work was ''A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages'' in which he attempted to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European languag ...
and
Max Müller Friedrich Max Müller (; 6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900) was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic disciplines of Indian ...
, who considered languages as living organisms arguing that linguistics belongs to
life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, the ...
. Saussure illustrates the historical development of languages by way of his distinction between the synchronic and the diachronic perspective employing a metaphor of moving pictures. Even though objects on film appear to be moving, at a closer inspection, this turns out to be an illusion because each picture is static ('synchronic') and there is nothing between the pictures except a lifeless frame. In a similar manner, the "life" of language—simply
language change Language change is variation over time in a language's features. It is studied in several subfields of linguistics: historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Traditional theories of historical linguistics identify ...
—consists of a series of static points, which are physically independent of the previous stage. In such a context, Saussure warns against the confusion of synchrony and diachrony expressing his concern that these could be not studied simultaneously. Following the posthumous publication of Saussure's ''Course,'' the separation of synchronic and diachronic linguistics became controversial and was rejected by structural linguists including
Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (russian: Рома́н О́сипович Якобсо́н; October 11, 1896Kucera, Henry. 1983. "Roman Jakobson." ''Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America'' 59(4): 871–883. – July 18,André Martinet André Martinet (; Saint-Alban-des-Villards, 12 April 1908 – Châtenay-Malabry, 16 July 1999) was a French linguist, influential due to his work on structural linguistics. Life and work Martinet passed his ''agrégation'' in English and recei ...
, but was well-received by the generative grammarians, who considered Saussure's statement as an overall rejection of the historical-comparative method. In American linguistics, Saussure became regarded as an opponent of historical linguistics. In 1979,
Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on ...
stated :"One of the major developments of the last decade or so in linguistics has been a revived and apparently still expanding interest in historical linguistics (..) As a minimum, the strict separation of synchronic and diachronic studies—envisaged by Saussure, but never absolute in practice—is now widely rejected." By contrast,
Mark Aronoff Mark Aronoff (), a native of Montreal, Quebec, is a morphologist and distinguished professor at Stony Brook University. The editor of ''Language'' from 1995 to 2001 and president of the Linguistic Society of America in 2005, he has been elect ...
argues that Saussure rooted linguistic theory in synchronic states rather than diachrony breaking a 19th-century tradition of evolutionary explanation in linguistics. A dualistic opposition between synchrony and diachrony has been carried over into
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, for instance by
Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
and
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
.
Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
also used it for
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
. Prior to de Saussure, many similar concepts were also developed independently by Polish linguists
Jan Baudouin de Courtenay Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay (13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929) was a Polish linguist and Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and phonetic alternations. For most of his life Baudouin de Courtenay worked at Imperi ...
and
Mikołaj Kruszewski Mikołaj Habdank Kruszewski, (Russian language, Russianized, ''Nikolay Vyacheslavovich Krushevsky'', Никола́й Вячесла́вович Круше́вский) (December 18, 1851, Lutsk – November 12, 1887, Kazan) was a Polish linguist ...
of the
Kazan School The Kazan School of phonology was an influential group of linguists in Kazan. The linguistic circle included the Polish linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay and his student Nikolai Trubetzkoy. Mikołaj Kruszewski, Vasilii Alekseevich Bogoroditskii, Se ...
, who used the terms statics and dynamics of language. In 1970
Eugenio Coșeriu Eugenio Coșeriu ( ro, Eugen Coșeriu, ; July 27, 1921 – September 7, 2002) was a linguist who specialized in Romance languages at the University of Tübingen, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy. In 1970 he coined ...
, revisiting De Saussure's synchrony and diachrony distinction in the description of language, coined the terms diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic to describe
linguistic variation Variation is a characteristic of language: there is more than one way of saying the same thing. Speakers may vary pronunciation (Accent (sociolinguistics), accent), word choice (lexicon), or morphology and syntax (sometimes called "grammar"). But ...
.Kastovsky, D. and Mettinger A. (eds.)
The History of English in a Social Context: A Contribution to Historical Sociolinguistics
', ''Introduction'', p.xiii
Eugenio Coșeriu Eugenio Coșeriu ( ro, Eugen Coșeriu, ; July 27, 1921 – September 7, 2002) was a linguist who specialized in Romance languages at the University of Tübingen, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy. In 1970 he coined ...
(1970) ''Einführung in die strukturelle Betrachtung des Wortschatzes''
Harr, A. K. (2012)
Language-Specific Factors in First Language Acquisition: The Expression of Motion Events in French and German
', p.12


References


Further reading

* Linguistics terminology Ferdinand de Saussure Dichotomies {{ling-stub