There is one fact that has [...] tended to prevent the recognition of language as a merely conventional system of sound symbols [...] that [...] is [...] that under the stress of emotion [...] we do involuntarily give utterance to sounds that the hearer interprets as indicative of the emotion itself. - Sapir (1921), a pag.4 [...] interjections are merely conventional fixations of the natural sounds. They [...] differ widely in various languages in accordance with the specific phonetic genius of each of these. [...] they may be considered an integral portion of speech, [...] being [...] related to their natural prototypes as is art, a purely social or cultural thing, to nature. - Sapir (1921), a pag.5 [...] the essence of language consists in the assigning of conventional, voluntarily articulated, sounds [...] to the diverse elements of experience. - Sapir (1921), a pag.11
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