clem 1/22

In De Saussure's text on semiotics, he discusses the fact that language= thought+sound. By working hand in hand the combination of our thoughts/ ideas and of sound creates and makes possible language. It also means that before we had language, before signs defined things, we were not able to "think"really! I do not know about you but I find that puzzling! It is very difficult for me to imagine Men not able to think but as De Saussure puts it, "without language, thought is a vague uncharted nebula". What is also interesting is that as language puts names on things, objects, its also does on feelings. And if a word for a feeling does not exist, does that mean we are not able to have that emotion? As words vary from one language to an other, some words also do not exist in certain language. For example, Portuguese language is the only one to possess the word "saudade" which approximately means a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost. But no other language possesses that specific word to describe that feeling and as well as we try to translate it it is still an approximation. Therefore because we do not have that word for that feeling we will never be able to exactly understand that particular feeling.