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Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure Books

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Ferdinand de Saussure, born on November 26, 1857 in Geneva, Switzerland, and died on February 22, 1913. He was a Swiss linguist and the founder of structuralism in linguistics, regarded as one of the most important linguists of the 20th century.

Course in General Linguistics

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“The ultimate law of language is, dare we say, that nothing can ever reside in a single term. This is a direct consequence of the fact that linguistic signs are unrelated to what they designate and that, therefore, 'a' cannot designate anything without the the aid of 'b' and vice versa, or, in other words, that both have value only by the difference between them.”

Facts Law Values Language Term Differences Consequence Direct Ultimate Vices Dare Aids Vice Versa

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“The first of these phases is that of grammar, invented by the Greeks and carried on unchanged by the French. It never had any philosophical view of a language as such.”

Firsts Language Views Philosophical Greek Phases Grammar

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“A language presupposes that all the individual users possess the organs.”

Individual Language Users Organs

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.”

Expression Mass Our Thoughts

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula.”

Language Vague Uncharted Nebula

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“I’m almost never serious, and I’m always too serious. Too deep, too shallow. Too sensitive, too cold hearted. I’m like a collection of paradoxes.”

Serious Cold Sensitive Collections Paradox Shallow Contradictory Hearted Seriousness Contradicting Too Deep Cold Hearted Deepness

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Language furnishes the best proof that a law accepted by a community is a thing that is tolerated and not a rule to which all freely consent.”

Law Language Community Communication Proof Accepted Consent

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Of all social institutions language is least amenable to initiative. It blends with the life of society, and the latter, inert by nature, is a prime conservative force.”

Language Force Social Institutions Conservative Latter Prime Initiative Translations Social Institutions Amenable

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.”

Form Language Views Written Disguise Obscure Translations Garments

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“In the lives of individuals and societies, language is a factor of greater importance than any other. For the study of language to remain solely the business of a handful of specialists would be a quite unacceptable state of affairs.”

States Would Be Individual Language Study Greater Importance Affair Factors Handful Specialists Individuals And Society

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.”

Individual Social Sides Speech

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law”

Should Reason Law Language All Things Universal Reason Why No Reason Universal Laws

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“Any psychology of sign systems will be part of social psychology - that is to say, will be exclusively social; it will involve the same psychology as is applicable in the case of languages.”

Language Social Cases Psychology Social Psychology

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...”

Ideas Sound Differences Series Linguists

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“The connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.”

Connections Arbitrary

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Henceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.”

Language Study Grammar Correcting

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.”

Said Might Institutions Evoke

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Within speech, words are subject to a kind of relation that is independent of the first and based on their linkage: these are syntagmatic relations, of which I have spoken.”

Firsts Kind Subjects Speech Relation Independent Linkages

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“In fact, from then on scholars engaged in a kind of game of comparing different Indo-European languages with one another, and eventually they could not fail to wonder what exactly these connections showed, and how they should be interpreted in concrete terms.”

Should Kind Different Facts Games Language Term Wonder Failing Connections Compare Engaged Engagement Scholar Concrete

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.”

Ideas Form Left Language Goes On Devices

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“In general, the philological movement opened up countless sources relevant to linguistic issues, treating them in quite a different spirit from traditional grammar; for instance, the study of inscriptions and their language. But not yet in the spirit of linguistics.”

Different Spirit Language Study Issues Movement Source Traditional Instance Relevant Grammar Linguistics Inscriptions Linguists

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“It is one of the aims of linguistics to define itself, to recognise what belongs within its domain. In those cases where it relies upon psychology, it will do so indirectly, remaining independent.”

Cases Psychology Aim Independent Rely Domain Recognise Linguistics Rely Upon Linguists

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“It is only since linguistics has become more aware of its object of study, i.e. perceives the whole extent of it, that it is evident that this science can make a contribution to a range of studies that will be of interest to almost anyone.”

Whole Interest Study Objects Range Perceive Contribution Evident Linguistics Linguists

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.”

Different Able Form Language Carrie Historian Changes Over Time

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Linguistics will have to recognise laws operating universally in language, and in a strictly rational manner, separating general phenomena from those restricted to one branch of languages or another.”

Law Language Rational Branches Recognise Linguistics Separating Linguists

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“Outside speech, the association that is made in the memory between words having something in common creates different groups, series, families, within which very diverse relations obtain but belonging to a single category: these are associative relations.”

Made Different Memories Common Groups Speech Relation Series Belonging Categories Association Diverse

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“The business, task or object of the scientific study of languages will if possible be 1) to trace the history of all known languages. Naturally this is possible only to a very limited extent and for very few languages.”

Ifs Language Known Study Objects Tasks

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.”

Different Principles Periods Historical Critical Instance Contribution Examination Linguistics Linguists Embarking

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

“The very special place that a language occupies among institutions is undeniable, but there is much more to be said-, a comparison would tend rather to bring out the differences.”

Said Language Differences Special Institutions Comparison Special Places

Author:Ferdinand de Saussure

About the Author

Born: November 26, 1857
Died: February 22, 1913
Known for: Author
Quotes: 29

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