Ferdinand de Saussure (26 November 1857 – 22 February 1913) was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant
--Ferdinand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics The Nature of the Linguistic Sign Sign, Signified, Signifier Some people regard language, when redu
Langue ("language"): abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system independent of the individual user involves the principles of language, w
A synchronic approach (from Ancient Greek: συν- "together" and χρόνος "time") considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account.
In the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an idea of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in 1892 (in his