"With de Saussure, the concept of meaning is inseparably connected with his concepts of sign and language... According to de Saussure, a linguistic sign is a psychic whole with two aspects: sound image and notion. Thus the sign is a specific combination of these two elements. Following from de Saussure's analysis, that two-sided relationship between sound and notion is meaning. This is why de Saussure suggests that the term "sound image" should be replaced by the term "signifiant" (that which means), and the term "notion" by the term "signifié" (that which is the object of meaning). The sign fulfils its function only by virtue of that relationship of meaning, the members of which are connected inseparably. The breaking of that unity would result in the destruction of the sign."
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Sources
Adam Schaff (1962). Introduction to semantics, p. 11
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure
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Ferdinand de Saussure
1857 – 1913
Schweizer Sprachwissenschaftler
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