In poetic language, in which the sign as such takes on an autonomous value, this sound symbolism becomes an actual factor and creates a sort of accompaniment to the signified.

Semantics, or the study of meaning, remained undeveloped, while phonetics made rapid progress and even came to occupy the central place in the scientific study of language.

Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.

The poetic function is the set towards the message itself, focus on the message for its own sake which by promoting the palpability of signs, deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and objects.

What's next? Shall we appoint elephants to teach zoology?

It is once again the vexing problem of identity within variety; without a solution to this disturbing problem there can be no system, no classification.

Now the identification of individual sounds by phonetic observation is an artificial way of proceeding.