A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes that language and memory create meaningful connections between words, forming associative groups based on shared characteristics.
Ferdinand De Saussure highlights the nature of language and its impact on memory and thought. He explains that when we hear or think of certain words, our minds group them based on their associations, forming a network of relationships. This associative process helps us understand and categorize the world linguistically, demonstrating how language shapes our cognitive frameworks and classifications.
Themes
LanguageMemoryAssociationsWordsMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about semiotics, this quote can illustrate the connection between language and cognition.
More from Ferdinand De Saussure
All quotes →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
Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
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.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Similar quotes
I have been asked whether I would agree that the tragedy of the scientist is that he is able to bring about great advances in our knowledge, which mankind may then proceed to use for purposes of destruction. My answer is that this is not the tragedy of the scientist; it is the tragedy of mankind.
Leo SzilardRead
The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.
Edmund BurkeRead
A chair is the first thing you need when you don’t really need anything, and is therefore a peculiarly compelling symbol of civilization. For it is civilization, not survival, that requires design.
Ralph CaplanRead
Most religions live from a narrative that shapes their relationship with the divine other, God or the gods, and with the human other, the stranger.
Timothy RadcliffeRead
The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.
Mary Mcleod BethuneRead
All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.
Julius CaesarRead