Course in General Linguistics by Ferdinand de Saussure
Published 1916 · 60,000 words · about 5 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Course in General Linguistics to read?
Course in General Linguistics scores 58 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 65 out of 100
- Introduces technical distinctions (langue/parole, signifier/signified, synchrony/diachrony) that require careful attention but are clearly defined.
- Sentence structure: 58 out of 100
- Abstraction: 85 out of 100
- The argument is almost entirely at the level of abstract linguistic structure with few concrete illustrations.
- Information density: 80 out of 100
- Highly compressed conceptual content; each paragraph introduces or refines a key distinction.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Lecture format is direct; claims are stated and defended without rhetorical indirection.
- Symbolic density: 12 out of 100
- Discusses signs as formal objects rather than operating in a symbolic register.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Earnest technical argument throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Definitions and distinctions are resolved explicitly.
- Structural complexity: 40 out of 100
- Organized as lecture series with distinct topics but lacking the tight sequential argument of a composed book.
How Course in General Linguistics is regarded
Course in General Linguistics holds a literary regard score of 48 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.