Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.

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

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.

Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.

In the lives of individuals and societies, language is a factor of greater importance than any other. For the study of language to remain solely the business of a handful of specialists would be a quite unacceptable state of affairs.

Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.

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.