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Ferdinand de Saussure Biography

Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure (/soʊˈsjʊər/; French: [fɛʁdinɑ̃ də sosyʁ]; 26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist and semiotician. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of semiotics/semiology.

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Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes

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

Individual, Side, Sides, Speech

Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.

Expression, Indistinct, Mass, Our Thoughts, Psychologically

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.

Bring, Differences, Language, Special, Tend

In fact, from then on scholars engaged in a kind of game of comparing different Indo-European languages with one another, and eventually they could not fail to wonder what exactly these connections showed, and how they should be interpreted in concrete terms.

Connections, Different, Eventually, Exactly, Facts, Games

I’m almost never serious, and I’m always too serious. Too deep, too shallow. Too sensitive, too cold hearted. I’m like a collection of paradoxes.

Cold, Cold Hearted, Deep, Like, Paradox, Serious

Henceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.

Correcting, Grammar, Language, Study, Towards

A language presupposes that all the individual users possess the organs.

Individual, Language, Organs, Presupposes, Users

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.

Language, Languages, Psychology, Social, Systems

The ultimate law of language is, dare we say, that nothing can ever reside in a single term. This is a direct consequence of the fact that linguistic signs are unrelated to what they designate and that, therefore, 'a' cannot designate anything without the the aid of 'b' and vice versa, or, in other words, that both have value only by the difference between them.

Differences, Law, Single, Term, Ultimate, Vices

Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.

Based, Evoke, Institutions, Might, Nearly, Signs

In general, the philological movement opened up countless sources relevant to linguistic issues, treating them in quite a different spirit from traditional grammar; for instance, the study of inscriptions and their language. But not yet in the spirit of linguistics.

Different, Issues, Movement, Quite, Traditional, Treating

The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.

Different, Historical, Instance, Periods, Principles

Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.

Devices, Everyone, Forms, Goes On, Ideas, Language

Within speech, words are subject to a kind of relation that is independent of the first and based on their linkage: these are syntagmatic relations, of which I have spoken.

Firsts, Independent, Kind, Speech, Spoken, Syntagmatic

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.

Conservative, Initiative, Institutions, Language, Latter, Society

It is only since linguistics has become more aware of its object of study, i. e. perceives the whole extent of it, that it is evident that this science can make a contribution to a range of studies that will be of interest to almost anyone.

Aware, Become, Interest, Linguistics, Range, Study

The first of these phases is that of grammar, invented by the Greeks and carried on unchanged by the French. It never had any philosophical view of a language as such.

Philosophical, Views, Greek, View, Language, Greeks

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.

Branches, General, Language, Languages, Law, Universally

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

Language, Law, Reason Why, Time, Universal

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.

Factor, Language, Lives, Study, Would Be

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