[...] if we substitute such radical words as 'man' and 'chick' for 'farmer' and 'duckling', we obtain a new material content [...] but not in the least a new structural mold.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.84

The new sentence, 'the man takes the chick', is totally different from the first sentence in what it conveys, not in how it conveys it. [...] the two sentences fit precisely the same pattern, that they are really the same fundamental sentence, differing only in their material trappings.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.84

[...] in exotic languages [...] we may be quite sure of the analysis of the words in a sentence and yet not succeed in acquiring that inner 'feel' of its structure that enables us to tell infallibly what is 'material content' and what is 'relation.'
- Sapir (1921), a pag.102

It is possible for a concrete concept, represented by a simple word, to lose its material significance entirely and pass over directly into the relational sphere without at the same time losing its independence as a word.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.102

[...] language struggles towards two poles of linguistic expression -material content and relation- and that these poles tend to be connected by a long series of transitional concepts.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.109