“The aim of general synchronic linguistics is to set up the fundamental principles of any idiosynchronic system, the constituents of any language-state. Many of the items already explained in Part One belong rather to synchrony; for instance, the general properties of the sign are an integral part of synchrony although they were used to prove the necessity of separating the two linguistics.”

—  Ferdinand de Saussure, book Course in General Linguistics

Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 101

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Ferdinand de Saussure photo
Ferdinand de Saussure17
Swiss linguist 1857–1913

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