Remember that the pharynx is at a crossroads from which leads off, at the top, the passage to the mouth cavity and the passage to the nasal cavity, and below, the passage to the larynx.

A linguist deaf to the poetic functions of language and a literary scholar indifferent to linguistics are equally flagrant anachronisms.

Every linguistic sign is located on two axes: the axis of simultaneity and that of succession.

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.

When I speak it is in order to be heard.

The function of poetry is to point out that the sign is not identical to the referent.

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