A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Written language can distort our understanding of spoken language.
Ferdinand De Saussure highlights the idea that written forms of language act as a veil that can obscure the true essence and intricacies of communication. He suggests that instead of simply dressing up spoken language, writing can disguise its genuine meaning, leading to potential misinterpretations and a lack of clarity in understanding language as a whole.
Themes
LanguageWritingCommunicationMeaningUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on linguistics, one might say, 'As Ferdinand De Saussure pointed out, written forms obscure our view of language.'
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.
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
Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Similar quotes
We've drifted away from being fishers of men to being keepers of the aquarium.
Paul HarveyRead
Variant: When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.
Rene DescartesRead
Well-meaning, helpful, good-natured attitudes of mind have not come to be honored on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
"It's very good jam," said the Queen. "Well, I don't want any to-day, at any rate." "You couldn't have it if you did want it," the Queen said. "The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday but never jam to-day." "It must come sometimes to "jam to-day,""Alice objected. "No it can't," said the Queen. "It's jam every other day; to-day isn't any other day, you know." "I don't understand you," said Alice. "It's dreadfully confusing."
Lewis CarrollRead
Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be seen as untimely. This is because a real writer is always shifting and changing and searching. The world has many labels for him, of which the most treacherous is the label of Success.
James A. BaldwinRead
Most things may never happen: this one will.
Philip LarkinRead