[...] 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

[...] instinctive cries [...] are not addressed to any one, they are merely overheard [...] they convey certain ideas to the hearer [...] only in the very general sense in which any and every sound or even any phenomenon in our environment may be said to convey an idea to the perceiving mind.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.5

Communication [...] is successfully effected only when the hearer's auditory perceptions are translated into the appropriate and intended flow of imagery or thought or both combined.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.18

If I wish to communicate an intelligible idea about a farmer, a duckling, and the act of killing, it is not enough to state the linguistic symbols for these concrete ideas in any order [...] trusting that the hearer may construct some kind of a relational pattern out of the general probabilities of the case.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.93