A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas...
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Written language can distort our understanding of spoken language.
Ferdinand De Saussure highlights the idea that written forms of language act as a veil that can obscure the true essence and intricacies of communication. He suggests that instead of simply dressing up spoken language, writing can disguise its genuine meaning, leading to potential misinterpretations and a lack of clarity in understanding language as a whole.
Themes
LanguageWritingCommunicationMeaningUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on linguistics, one might say, 'As Ferdinand De Saussure pointed out, written forms obscure our view 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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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.
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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.
Ferdinand De SaussureRead
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