Ferdinand de SaussureThinkers

Language is a system of differences, without positive terms; it is a set of relations of difference and similarity, rather than a set of terms that are differentiated.

A Language is a system in which all the elements fit together, and in which the value of any one element depends on the simultaneous coexistence of all the others.

Meaning is not dependent on reference to the world, or even to ideas. As any translator could tell you, words do not have exact equivalents from one language to another.

Semiology is the study of signifying practice; analysis of the inscription of meanings in culture.

The Sign is not pointing to some meaning that resides elsewhere ‘behind’ the words; rather, meaning resides in the sign and nowhere else.

A Signifier is not just a word but anything that can be interpreted, such as traffic lights, arrows gestures — pointing, shaking hands; yawns, gasps, and screams.

The Signifier is a sound, image, written shape, object, practice, or gesture invested with meaning.