Ferdinand de Saussure "Thought and language are distinct and autonomous in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Furthermore, thought is central and language is a symbolic system that we use to refer in various ways to what we think."" Robert Lado Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist, was one of the founders of modern linguistics. He established the structural study of language, emphasizing the arbitrary relationship of the linguistic sign to that which it signifies. Saussure distinguished synchronic linguistics (studying language at a given moment) from diachronic linguistics (...

• Word Count: 1928
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate