1. Fedinand de Saussure
1.1. Saussure's View of Langauge
Prior to the 20th century, linguists took an atomistic view of language: it was seen as a compilation of individual elements, for instance, speech sounds, words and grammatical endings. This was an item-centred analysis. Ferdinand de Saussure put forward a very different view where language is seen as structured system of relation oppositions. In structuralism, units (sounds, morphemes, sentences, meanings . . .) can be defined only by reference to their relationships to the other units in the same language. They are mutually defining entities. They derive their identity from their interrelationships. Every unit is a point in a structure, and it has no significance by itself.
Structural View ( network of relations) VS. Atomistic View ( collection of individual items)