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Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes

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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.

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Famous Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes

“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

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

Language Vague Uncharted Nebula

Book:Course in General Linguistics

Source: Course in General Linguistics

“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

“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

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

Language Study Grammar Correcting

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 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

“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 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

Books & Sources

Course in General LinguisticsRelated source material

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