A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.

Equally crucial although often overlooked or misapplied is the dimension of the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axis of linguistic description.  
This volume which consists mostly of material previously publiFerdinand de Saussured by Engler includes an attempt at reconstructing a text from a set of Saussure's manuscript pages headed "The Double Essence of Language" found in 1996 in Geneva. Trager Rulon S.

The fundamental dimensions of linguistic organization introduced by Saussure are still basic to many approaches to how the phenomenon of language can be approached even though they have naturally been extended and refined considerably over time. This typically twentieth-century view of language has profoundly influenced developments throughout the whole range of human sciences. Words are not mere vocal labels or communicational adjuncts superimposed upon an already given order of things.