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.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...
Interpretation
What this quote means
Language is built upon the contrasts between sounds and meanings.
Ferdinand De Saussure's quote emphasizes that language is fundamentally a system of differences, where the distinction in sounds correlates with differing concepts or ideas. This highlights the relational nature of meaning in linguistics, suggesting that understanding language involves recognizing how different elements interact and define each other within a given system.
Themes
LanguageLinguisticsMeaningCommunicationDifference
In practice
Example use cases
In a linguistics class, to explain the complexity of language structure.
More from Ferdinand De Saussure
All quotes βPsychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.
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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.
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Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
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Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
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Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
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