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
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.
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.
law branches language
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.
language individual organs
A language presupposes that all the individual users possess the organs.
able different language
It is useful to the historian, among others, to be able to see the commonest forms of different phenomena, whether phonetic, morphological or other, and how language lives, carries on and changes over time.
tasks language study
The business, task or object of the scientific study of languages will if possible be 1) to trace the history of all known languages. Naturally this is possible only to a very limited extent and for very few languages.
differences special language
The very special place that a language occupies among institutions is undeniable, but there is much more to be said-, a comparison would tend rather to bring out the differences.
psychology language social
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.
conservative language initiative
Of all social institutions language is least amenable to initiative. It blends with the life of society, and the latter, inert by nature, is a prime conservative force.
study language grammar
Henceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.
ideas goes-on language
Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
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.
nebula language uncharted
Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula.
views language obscure
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.