A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The study of signs in psychology is inherently social and parallels linguistic psychology.
Ferdinand De Saussure emphasizes that any exploration of how signs function in psychology must take into account their social context. Just as the structure of languages is social, the psychology that arises from sign systems, which communicate meaning and information within a community, is also shaped by social interactions and norms.
Themes
PsychologySign SystemsSocialLanguageCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about linguistics, one might quote Saussure to illustrate the social dimensions of language.
More from Ferdinand De Saussure
All quotes →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.
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Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.
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Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
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Speech has both an individual and a social side, and we cannot conceive of one without the other.
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Everyone, left to his own devices, forms an idea about what goes on in language which is very far from the truth.
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