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| Saussure |
Saussure argued that signs only make sense as part of a formal, generalized and abstract system. His conception of meaning was purely structural and relational rather than referential: primacy is given to relationships rather than to things (the meaning of signs was seen as lying in their systematic relation to each other rather than deriving from any inherent features of signifiers or any reference to material things). Saussure did not define signs in terms of some 'essential' or intrinsic nature. For Saussure, signs refer primarily to each other. Within the language system, 'every thing depends on relations'.
No sign makes sense on its own but only in relation to other signs. Both signifier and signified are purely relational entities. This notion can be hard to understand since we may feel that an individual word such as 'tree' does have some meaning for us, but its meaning depends on its context in relation to the other words with which it is used.
The 'value' of a sign depends on its relations with other signs within the system-a sign has no 'absolute' value independent of this context. Saussure uses an analogy with the game of chess, noting that the value of each piece depends on its position on the chessboard. The sign is more than the sum of its parts. Whilst signification - what is signified - clearly depends on the relationship between the two parts of the sign, the value of a sign is determined by the relationships between the sign and other signs within the system as whole.
The meaning of any word depends upon its relation with other words, which are adjoining with it in meaning. This notion is explained by using the phonemic theory of difference. We cannot arrive at a definition of the phoneme, 'K' except by means of distinguishing it from other phonemes like 'p, d, b, t' etc. For example, the meaning of the word house is related with its position in the 'syntagmatic chain'.
Shed, Hut, Hovel, House, Flat, Mansion, Bungalow, Place....The meaning of anyone of these will be altered if any one of the word is deleted from the chain. Saussure even pronounced that in language there are only differences without positive terms.
