Early-to mid-20th century: descriptive linguistics.

In the 20th century, the emphasis shifted from language change to language description. Instead of looking at how a selection of items changed in a number of different languages, linguists began to concentrate on describing single languages at one particular point of time.

Ferdinand Saussure (1857-1913) is sometimes labelled 'the father of modern linguistics'. He died without having written any major work on general linguistics. Course in General Linguistics is a compilation about the Saussure's lecture notes his students collected together after his death.

Saussure first suggested that language was like a game of chess, a systemin which each item is defined by its relationship to all others. His insistence  that language is a carefully built structure of interwoven elements initiated  the era of structural linguistics.