Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure
Ferdinand Mongin de Saussurewas a Swiss linguist and semiotician. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments both in linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major foundersof semiotics/semiology...
NationalitySwiss
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth26 November 1857
CountrySwitzerland
Ferdinand de Saussure quotes about
aware evident extent interest object perceives range science since studies
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.
attempting history language obliged oneself soon trace
In attempting to trace the history of a language, one will very soon find oneself obliged to trace the history of a language family.
greek history involves language period share
Before Latin, there is a period which Greek and Slavic share in common. So this involves the history of language families, as and when relevant.
cold-hearted serious paradox
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.
connections arbitrary
The connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.
independent firsts speech
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.
nebula language uncharted
Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula.
speech sides individual
Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
differences ideas sound
A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.
views language obscure
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
would-be study language
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.
expression mass our-thoughts
Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.
communication law community
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.
might said evoke
Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.