The critical principle demanded an examination, for instance, of the contribution of different periods, thus to some extent embarking on historical linguistics.
Ferdinand de SaussureNearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.
Ferdinand de SaussureHenceforth, language studies were no longer directed merely towards correcting grammar.
Ferdinand de SaussureLanguage 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.
Ferdinand de Saussure