Language Furnishes The Best Proof That A

The Connection Between The Signifier And The Signified Is Arbitrary.

Of All Social Institutions Language Is Least Amenable To Initiative. It Blends With The Life Of Society, And The Latter, Inert By Nature, Is A Prime Conservative Force.

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 Critical Principle Demanded An Examination, For Instance, Of The Contribution Of Different Periods, Thus To Some Extent Embarking On Historical Linguistics.

Written Forms Obscure Our View Of Language. They Are Not So Much A Garment As A Disguise.