Ferdinand de Saussure

Swiss linguist and philosopher (1857–1913)

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Lived 1857–1913, aged 56Switzerland

Switzerland AcademicsWriter / Author

Fame22.8
Momentum0.0
Switzerland rank#18
Academics rank#187
Wikipedia20K

Wikipedia
96 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Switzerland
#18
Academics
Era
1857–1913
Aged 56

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Swiss linguist who basically rewired how we think about language and meaning. His lectures on signs and linguistic structure became the blueprint for 20th-century linguistics and semiotics, even though he never published a book himself.

Biography

About

Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. His ideas laid a foundation for many significant developments in both linguistics and semiotics in the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century linguistics and one of two major founders of semiotics, or semiology, as Saussure called it.

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