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 βLinguistics 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.
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Psychologically 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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