We consider a concept of substitutive structure, called "logos", in order to study simple substitution, independently of formal or programming languages. We provide a definition of simultaneous substitution in an arbitrary logos and use it to prove a completeness theorem expressing that the equational properties of the usual substitution can be proved from the logos axioms only.
Crabbé, M. (2004). On the notion of substitution. Logic Journal of the IGPL, 12(2), 111-124. https://doi.org/10.1093/jigpal/12.2.111 (Original work published 2004)