“There are two kinds of people in the world: those, who believe there’s two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t.”
Structuralists comprehend the world through separation, dichotomizing the world around them.
Saussure (1857-1913) is the father of structuralism, despite never expecting to become one. This title was ascribed to him posthumously. He was a linguist, not a philosopher.
The Course in General Linguistics (CGL) is a collection of student notes of his lectures, given between 1906 and 1911.
He was not widely known before his discovery by russian formalist and Prague linguistics circles.
It is very hard to define the object of study of linguistics. Unlike physics, or other natural sciences, which study something concrete.