What is language? What is the relationship between language, thought, and reality? What role does language play in social interaction? This volume offers a compact introduction to the fundamental questions and significant answers of the philosophy of language before and after the linguistic turn. Classical approaches from antiquity through Locke and Leibniz, Herder and Humboldt to Nietzsche are discussed, as well as the central positions of the 20th century: analytical philosophy (Frege, Wittgenstein, Austin), hermeneutics and phenomenology (Heidegger), structuralism (Saussure), and deconstruction (Derrida, Butler). Thus, the volume is aimed at students of philosophy as well as related disciplines such as literature, cultural studies, media studies, and social sciences.