The world of our experiences must be [...] generalized before it is possible to make a symbolic inventory of all our experiences of things and relations; and this [...] is imperative before we can convey ideas. [...]. If the single significant elements of speech are the symbols of concepts, the actual flow of speech may be interpreted as a record of the setting of these concepts into mutual relations.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.12

[...] the typical linguistic element labels a concept. It does not follow from this that the use to which language is put is always or even mainly conceptual. We are not in ordinary life so much concerned with concepts as such as with concrete particularities and specific relations.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.14

Each element in the sentence defines a separate concept or conceptual relation or both combined, but the sentence as a whole has no conceptual significance whatever.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.14

As a matter of fact, no sooner do we try to put an image into conscious relation with another than we find ourselves slipping into a silent flow of words.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.15

[...] the development of a clear-cut phonetic system, the specific association of speech elements with concepts, and the delicate provision for the formal expression of all manner of relations- all this meets us rigidly perfected and systematized in every language known to us.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.22

[...] grammar, a universal trait of language, is simply a generalized expression of the feeling that analogous concepts and relations are most conveniently symbolized in analogous forms.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.38

Every language possesses one or more formal methods for indicating the relation of a secondary concept to the main concept of the radical element.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.57

[...] the number concept has no syntactic significance whatever, is not essentially conceived of as defining a relation, but falls into the group of derivational or even of basic concepts.
- Sapir (1921), a pag.94

'Basic [...] Concepts' [...]: normally expressed by independent words or radical elements; involve no relation as such [...]
- Sapir (1921), a pag.101

[...] in exotic languages, where 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