Langue and parole

Langue (French, meaning "language") and parole (meaning "speaking") are linguistic terms distinguished by Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics. Langue encompasses the abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system; it is independent of, and pre-exists, individual users. Langue involves the principles of language, without which no meaningful utterance, "parole", would be possible. Parole refers to the concrete instances of the use of langue. This is the individual, personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a linguistic subject. Saussure did not concern himself overly with parole; however, the structure of langue is revealed through the study of parole. The distinction is similar to that made about language by Wilhelm von Humboldt, between energeia (active doing) and ergon (the product of that doing). Saussure drew an analogy to chess to explain the concept of langue and parole. He compared langue to the rules of chess—the norms for playing the game—and compared the moves that an individual chooses to make—the individual's preferences in playing the game—to the parole.

When translated from the French term langue can mean language. However, it is known Saussure intended the term to mean internal, arrangement and relationship of rules understood by a social group, however, rarely thought of in everyday life. Langue is believed to be a universal structure and, while it may have variations as seen in foreign languages, with principal linguistic patterns.

Parole typically when it is translated means speech. Saussure, on the other hand, intended for it to mean both the written and spoken language as experienced in everyday life. It is the precise utterances and use of langue. Therefore, parole, unlike langue, is as diverse and varied as the number of people who share a language and the number of utterances and attempts to use that language. Furthermore, parole is known to have been changed and manipulated by a number of causes for example time, social groups, and age of users.

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