Saussure and Chomsky, the two major figures in linguistics of the twentieth century and beyond, have often been compared. The collection of bilingual English and French papers of this volume offers different perspectives, defended by two generations of researchers, on what brings together and distinguishes the Saussurean and Chomskyan theories. The papers all highlight that the two theories offer points of convergence, as they are interested in the same human manifestation, while divergence emerges from the fact that they build on two different premises about the nature of their object of study. The authors do not always reach similar conclusions but offer thoughts and material that will definitely help readers form their own opinion.

Giuseppe Cosenza currently works at the University of Calabria and collaborates with the University of Geneva on the digitalization of Saussure's manuscripts. He is the author of a volume on Saussure's terminology. Claire Forel is a former associate professor of English linguistics at the University of Geneva. She has been a long-standing figure in the field of Saussurean studies, including their reception in the English-speaking world. Genoveva Puskás is an associate professor of English linguistics at the University of Geneva. She trained within the generative framework, and is the author of a volume on the Minimalist Program by Chomsky. Thomas Robert was trained as a philosopher. He has pursued the question of the origin of language and wrote his PhD dissertation on 'The origin of the language in human animals: Rousseau, Darwin, Saussure'.