When language is regarded as a symbolic system, then what this means, is that it is a structure of relations of symbols emerging from social interactions. This is very fundamental to linguistics, as language is something precisely not ruled by some magical rules, but emerges from the social, that's how you can explain embedded power structures, change, etc. The connection between subject-subject and subject-object, and object-object is an active field of study. It is part of my PhD thesis, too.
