At first acoustics attributed to the different sounds only a limited number of characteristic features.

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.

Linguistic sounds, considered as external, physical phenomena have two aspects, the motor and the acoustic.

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

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

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

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

Bilingualism is for me the fundamental problem of linguistics.

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

When I speak it is in order to be heard.

A new era in the physiological investigation of linguistic sounds was opened up by X-ray photography.

The advertising industry's prime task is to ensure that uninformed consumers make irrational choices, thus undermining market theories that are based on just the opposite.

An evening like this would be empty without some reference to [politics] so let's just think of this as empty.

The main cause of my difficulties stemmed from the tragedy of my daughter's unsound birth and my inability to face my feelings.

There is no other airport in the world which serves so many people and so many airplanes. This is an extraordinary airport. . . it could be classed as one of the wonders of the modern world.

I am older now, and sleep less, and have seen most of what there is to see and am not very much impressed any more, I suppose, by anything.

As a measure of acting skills, film can be very deceptive.

When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.

You are my Guardian Angel, Maddy,” a voice said, but it was far away from her.

The message here is you cannot, under any circumstances, throw an object at an official. You just cannot do it.

Few things loves better Than to abhor himself.