Why is Gottlob Frege considered a founder of modern philosophy of language?

Gottlob Frege is widely regarded as a founder of the modern philosophy of language because he initiated a revolution that shifted the focus of philosophical inquiry toward the study of meaning and language.12

His contributions include:

• Priority of Sentence Meaning: Frege argued that the meaning of a sentence (the "thought" it expresses) is primary, while the meanings of individual words are determined by their contribution to the sentences in which they appear.2
• Sense and Reference: He introduced the influential distinction between an expression's referent (Bedeutung)—the object it denotes—and its sense (Sinn), which is the "mode of presentation" of that object. This allowed him to explain how statements of identity can be informative.2
• Logical Analysis: In his attempt to formalize mathematical reasoning, he developed modern mathematical logic, including the use of quantifiers and predicates as functions. This provided a tool to uncover the underlying logical structure of language, helping to resolve philosophical puzzles by distinguishing surface grammar from logical form.234

By demonstrating that fundamental philosophical and mathematical problems could be addressed through the analysis of language, Frege helped launch the "linguistic turn" in analytic philosophy.3