Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes on Knowledge
Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and semiotician whose posthumously assembled Course in General Linguistics (1916) became the foundational text of structural linguistics and, through it, of twentieth-century structuralism in anthropology, literary theory, and philosophy. This page collects quotes attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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“Language is a system of signs that express ideas.”
p. 16 ; Partly cited in; Geza Revesz , The Origins and Prehistory of Language , London 1956. p. 126 -
Attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure:
“In language there are only differences, without positive terms.”
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Attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure:
“Language is form, not substance.”
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“Ferdinand de Saussure (1910), Saussure's Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics (1910-1911) , Pergamon Press, 1993.”
As long as the activity of linguists was limited to comparing one language with another, this general utility cannot have been apparent to most of the general public, and indeed the study was so specialised that there was no real reason to suppose it of possible interest to a wider audience . It is only since linguistics has become more aware of its object of study, i.e. perceives the whole extent -
“Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.”
p. 9 -
“p. 16 ; Partly cited in; Geza Revesz , The Origins and Prehistory of Language , London 1956. p. 126”
Language is a system of signs that express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes, symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc. But it is the most important of all these systems. -
“Writing obscures language ; it is not a guise for language but a disguise.”
p. 31 -
“p. 33; as cited in: Adam Schaff (1962). Introduction to semantics , p. 9”
Thus we may found the science for the study of the life of signs against the background of social life; it would form part of social psychology, and consequently of general psychology; we shall call it semiology (from Greek sēmeion — 'sign'). That science would explain to us in what signs consist of and by what laws they are governed. Since it is a science which does not yet exist, we do not know -
“La langue est un systéme dont toutes les parties peuvent et doivent être considérés dans leur solidarité synchronique.”
Language is a system whose parts can and must all be considered in their synchronic solidarity. p. 87 (1916, p. 124; Part 1, Ch. 3, sec. 3.) -
“Language is a system whose parts can and must all be considered in their synchronic solidarity. p. 87 (1916, p. 124; Part 1, Ch. 3, sec. 3.)”
La langue est un systéme dont toutes les parties peuvent et doivent être considérés dans leur solidarité synchronique.