General linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure - A return to his text

There is talk these days of a return to Saussure, and we may do well to ask ourselves in what sense this return should be understood, given the comple x editorial history of Saussures ideas concerning general linguistics. Shou ld this be in terms of rereading the 1916 text established by Bally and Sec hehaye or based on largely unknown, only partially published texts? This an d related questions, the author holds, can only be answered by revisiting t he history of the composition of the Cours de linguistique generale. In the present paper, a presentation of the available texts and their editions is made before the conclusion is being drawn that a return to Saussure today should be undertaken in terms of content.