Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”