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.
More Quotes from Ferdinand de Saussure:
Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.Ferdinand de Saussure
A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.
Ferdinand de Saussure
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.
Ferdinand de Saussure
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.
Ferdinand de Saussure
It is one of the aims of linguistics to define itself, to recognise what belongs within its domain. In those cases where it relies upon psychology, it will do so indirectly, remaining independent.
Ferdinand de Saussure
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.
Ferdinand de Saussure
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