1. Mounin maintains that FdS’ s life only “peut sans doute expliquer [Saussure’s work] en profondeur, non pas dans ses motivations historiques, sociologiques ou personnelles, mais dans sa teneur et dans sa forme mêmes” (Mounin, 1968:12–3). For further information on Saussure see E. F. K. Koerner, Bibliographia Saussureana, 1870–1970, Part I, § 1, “Biographical sources on FdS”, in particular the obituaries by Gauthiot, Meillet, and Streitberg, all of which have been reprinted in Portraits of Linguists II, 87–110, as well as the inaugural address by Bally of 1913 (repr. in Bally, 1952:147–60); s. also the notes by FdS himself edited by R. Godei, “Souvenirs de F. de Saussure concernant sa jeunesse et ses études”, CFS 17:12–25 (1960), and “La place de la linguistique générale dans la vie de F. de Saussure”, SM, 23–35.
2. S. BSLP 3, no. 16:xxix (1876) for Saussure’s full name, as against Mourelle-Lema, 1969:4.
3. FdS was born on November 26th, 1857, eldest son of the zoologist
4. and entomologist Henri de Saussure (1829–1905) and the Countess de Pourtalès, both of old aristocratic Geneva families. His father had travelled widely and in particular to Central America; see his Biologia centrali-americana written with the assistance of Leo Zehntner, Adolphe Pictet, and others, an English version of which also appeared ed. by F. Du Cane Godman and Osbert Salvin (London: P. H. Porter, 1893–1909). For further of his works, s. the British Museum General Catalogue, vol. 213, coll. 623, and Library of Congress Catalogue, vol. 132, 102–3. FdS’s uncle, Theodore de Saussure (1824–1903), mayor of the city of Genthod for half a century (1850–1900), and an important figure in the social and political life of the French speaking part of Switzerland of his time, was founder and president of the Société Suisse des Monuments Historiques, but also wrote an Etude sur la langue française: De l’orthographie des noms propres et des noms étrangers introduits dans la langue (Geneva: A. Cherbuliez, 1885),125 pp. As president of the Société Suisse des Arts he wrote reports of international exhibitions, for instance Exposition universelle 1878: Groupe J, Classes 1 et 2 (Zürich: O. Füssli, 1879), 21 pp., and Rapport sur le groupe XXV: Beaux-arts (Schaffhausen: C. Baader, 1874), 14 pp.
5. FdS had three younger brothers: Horace (1859–1926), an aquarellist and painter — cf. the photograph of a portrait he made of FdS in AnnEPHE 1964/65, opposite p. 35; Léopold (1866–1925), one-time naval officer and later on a sinologist and specialist in ancient Chinese astronomy; — cf. his paper, “La cosmologie religieuse en Chine, dans l’Iran et chez les prophètes hébreux”, Actes du Congrès international d’Histoire des religions (Paris: Champion, 1925), II, 79–92, and his article, “L’origine des noms de mer Rouge, mer Blanche et mer Noire”, Le Globe 63:24–36 (1925); the third and youngest brother appears to be the most interesting with regard to FdS’s linguistic interests: René (1868–1943), associate professor of mathematics at the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. (1895–8) and later privat-docent and professor at Geneva and Berne Universities, published extensively, besides a few books on natural science, on problems concerning the development and establishment of an international language (frequently under the pseudonym of Antido in an attempt to overcome the shortcomings of other constructed languages such as Esperanto and Ido); for information on his work on artificial languages see Enoiklopedio de Esperanto (Budapest: Literatura Mondo, 1934/35), vol. II, p. 479, and Maurice Monnerot-Dumaine, Precis d’interlinguistique (Paris: Maloine, 1960), pp. 62, 69, 109–10. Since nobody appears to have drawn attention to this fact, some of Rene’s earlier publications on international languages should be mentioned here. (In fact, as Mr. R. Haupenthal of Saarbrücken University informed me recently in private correspondence, Rene’s production in this field of research was enormous). According to Ernest K. Drezen (Historio de la Mondolingvo [Oosaka: Pirato, 1967], 189–90) and other writings on the subject, the best known of Rene’s studies were Elementala gramatiko de la lingwo internaciona kun exercaro and Teoria ekzameno de la lingvo Esperanto kun fonetika internacia alfabeto (Geneva 1907 and 1910 respectively) both of which propose modified versions of already existing systems together with exercises for their study. Two other writings, Kia estas la logika de l’vorto r grando’? of 1911 and Fundamental reguloj de la vortteorio de Esperanto of 1915 have recently been reprinted (Saarbrücken: A. E. Iltis, 1969). See also Rene’s studies, La construction logique des mots en Esperanto (Geneva 1910), and La structure logique des mots dans les langues naturelles, considérée au point de vue de son application aux langues artificielles (Berne: Impr. de Bücheier, 1918). The relation between FdS’s linguistic ideas and those of René will be the subject of a separate study. — It also appears worth mentioning that René wrote, at the age of 22, a Théorie des phénomènes physiques et chimiques (Geneva: Bureau des ‘Archives des Sciences physiques et naturelles’, 1891), 47 pp., and that he took his doctorate at John Hopkins University in 1894 with a thesis entitled Sur la generation des courbes par roulement (Geneva: Imp. Aubert-Schuchardt, 1895), 94 pp.