
„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 Swiss linguist 1857 - 1913
Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 101