"Signs function not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position"
This quote is basically saying thatthe function of a sign has it's function because of other signs and their relativity to that sign. like in the barry's reading a hut is a hut because you compare it to a house or a shed. If there were fewer words for shelter the meaning of hut would change.
This idea affects how we interpret the world around us through literature. If we weren't exposed to these ideas and didn't have words to describe reality I think that everything would be confusing.
In a basic view of structuralism most of it makes sense, everything falls into this big language structure that contructs reality. It doesn't represent a prexisting reality. The only problem I have with it is that it doesn't incorporate a defenition through economic and social structure, it's mainly based on a sign with no essential value. It doesn't matter what is currently happening in society which i'm against because new words are made up all the time.
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It was really intersting to read Saussure because of his take on language/ the writen word. I thought it rather interesting how he actually looking at the meaning of a word. How in reality, the word itself is just an image and a concept which in turn make the actual meaning for us. The singifier +signified=sign. Thinking of language in that way is so mind boggling. The word that we retain are socially constructed becuase of the images and concepts that give a particular sign. My shoe is only a shoe because it has been compared to other things that make it so...cool.
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