“The first of these phases is that of grammar, invented by the Greeks and carried on unchanged by the French. It never had any philosophical view of a language as such.”
Author details
Related authors
Other Ferdinand de Saussure Quotes
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.
Ferdinand de Saussure 
63% of people like this quote
The first of these phases is that of grammar, invented by the Greeks and carried on unchanged by the French. It never had any philosophical view of a language as such.
Ferdinand de Saussure
61% of people like this quote
Nearly all institutions, it might be said, are based on signs, but these signs do not directly evoke things.
Ferdinand de Saussure
61% of people like this quote