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Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Nebula
Language
Uncharted
Ferdinand De Saussure
The connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Connections
Arbitrary
Ferdinand De Saussure
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Law
Differences
Vices
Ferdinand De Saussure
Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Law
ReasonWhy
Language
Ferdinand De Saussure
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
ColdHearted
Serious
Paradox
Ferdinand De Saussure
A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Ideas
Differences
Sound
Ferdinand De Saussure
Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Speech
Sides
Individual
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Communication
Law
Community
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
WouldBe
Study
Language
Ferdinand De Saussure
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Views
Language
Obscure
Ferdinand De Saussure
Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Expression
Mass
OurThoughts
Ferdinand De Saussure
Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Might
Evoke
Institutions
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Ideas
GoesOn
Language
Ferdinand De Saussure
A language presupposes that all the individual users possess the organs.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Language
Individual
Organs
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Independent
Speech
Firsts
Ferdinand De Saussure
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Conservative
Language
Initiative
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Memories
Groups
Different
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Study
Range
Interest
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.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Different
Able
Language
Ferdinand De Saussure
Henceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.
― Ferdinand de Saussure
Study
Language
Grammar
Ferdinand De Saussure
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