formation is not strictly a matter of langue, but is rather assigned to what hecalled parole, and thus placed outside the scope of linguistics proper;

Saussure echoed an important critique of Humbold-tian linguistic theory by the distinguished American linguist William DwightWhitney, who evidently greatly influenced Saussure.

Thegreat Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who at the turn of the century laidthe groundwork for modern structural linguistics, put forth the view that theonly proper methods of linguistic analysis are segmentation and classification.