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Ferdinand de Saussure

Quote of Ferdinand de Saussure - Language can also be compared with...


Biography - Ferdinand de Saussure:

Swiss linguist and semiotician.
Born: 1857 - Died: 1913
Period:
20th century
19th century
Place of birth: Switzerland
Switzerland

Language can also be compared with a sheet of paper: thought is the front and the sound the back; one cannot cut the front with out cutting the back at the same time; likewise in language, one can neither divide sound from thought nor thought from sound;


Note 

Note




Quote source: Course in General Linguistics

Wikisource - Saussure - Cours de linguistique générale (fr) 




Translation

Translation

(French, German)



French
La langue est encore comparable à une feuille de papier : la pensée est le recto et le son le verso ; on ne peut découper le recto sans découper en même temps le verso ; de même dans la langue, on ne saurait isoler ni le son de la pensée, ni la pensée du son ;

German
Die Sprache ist ferner vergleichbar mit einem Blatt Papier: Das Denken ist die Vorderseite und der Laut die Rückseite; man kann die Vorderseite nicht zerschneiden, ohne zugleich die Rückseite zu zerschneiden, so wenig kann der Gedanke vom Laut getrennt werden.




See also 

See also...



Language serves not only to express thoughts, but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it.




Quotes for: thought


Quotes

Quotes about thought:


Great thoughts come from the heart.





I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.





People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.





Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within.





The thought of death betrays us, for it makes us forget to live.





Lucidity adds beauty to profound thoughts.











Quotes for: Language


Quotes

Quotes for: Language


Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our mind by means of our language.





The language of truth is simple.





Language is a source of misunderstanding.





Action is the language of the body and should harmonize with the spirit within.





Language is the house of the truth of Being.





Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.











Quotes

Ferdinand de Saussure also said...


It is often easier to discover a truth than to assign to it its proper place.





One characteristic of the symbol is that it is never wholly arbitrary; it is not empty, for there is the rudiment of a natural bond between the signifier and the signified. The symbol of justice, a pair of scales, could not be replaced by just any other symbol, such as a chariot.





Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.





Language is a system of signs that express ideas.





Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.





Language is a system whose parts can and must all be considered in their synchronic solidarity.












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