Outside speech, the association that is made in the memory between words having something in common creates different groups, series, families, within which very diverse relations obtain but belonging to a single category: these are associative relations.

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.

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

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

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.

Written forms obscure our view of language. They are not so much a garment as a disguise.

Language furnishes the best proof that a law accepted by a community is a thing that is tolerated and not a rule to which all freely consent.