CRG for February 5
To be written and submitted in class (no exceptions!)
This CRG will focus on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, whom we discussed briefly in class on Thursday.
You are going to write two very controlled paragraphs for this CRG, which you will submit in class on Tuesday, February 5 (there is no such thing as a CRG handed in late, for whatever reason--faulty printers, deranged pets, etc.).
As you read Saussure, don't expect anything to be intuitive. He's proposing a radically different way to think about language and how it refers to things (or not). You'll find the first major, perhaps startling claim on the top of p. 61 in the first full paragraph. Digest that carefully before proceeding. 
The next major step is the arbitrary nature of the sign--the fact that there is no natural connection between signifier and signified. What does the existence of the different words "cheval" and "equus" and "horse" tell us?
And now think about the linear nature of the signifier in spoken language. To grasp this, consider how the words on your screen are arranged in this sentence, and think about how you process them, vs. the way you process the picture of the tree you see here. What controls the order through which you process words? and the order through which you process the components of the image of the tree? In short, can you move around in a sentence as freely as you can move about in an image?
Linguistic value is not the same thing as signification. Value, as anyone with money in the stock market knows, is not fixed; it is relative to all sorts of changes and influences from surrounding phenomena. Think of signification as pointing at someone or something with your finger. Your principal objective in that situation is to identify, to distinguish, to name, or to designate. You select a person or thing out from a background or group. But value, as Saussure argues on the bottom of p. 66, always involves two components: being able to exchange a thing with a dissimilar thing (say, money for bread); and being able to compare similar things (say, dollars for euros). You need to be able to do both things to understand the value of the thing in question. This works with words, too: a word can be exchanged for a dissimilar thing, as when you exchange it for a complex idea; and it can be compared with other words, as when you want to arrive at a precise meaning (what's the difference between big, huge, humongous, and large?). To understand value as it relates to words and language, you need to be able to do both things. Consider carefully the rest of the section on linguistic value.
Your writing assignment is as follows: write two paragraphs considering different ways in which pure difference operates in determining how we derive meaning from language.
Let's break that up now. Think about how each of the major concepts stepped through above [(1) concept vs. sound image; (2) arbitrary nature of the sign; (3) linear nature of the signifier; (4) linguistic value] depends not on anything stable or fixed or empirically verifiable, but depends instead on difference from something else. In your first paragraph, choose two of these major concepts and discuss how difference animates them.
In your second paragraph, discuss how your examples relate to Saussure's claim that "in language there are only differences" (70). What does this mean, and what are the ramifications of this claim? You might find it useful to consider Jonathan Culler's argument that structuralism is based on "the realization that if human actions or productions have meaning there must be an underlying system of distinctions and conventions which makes this meaning possible" (56).
I would imagine that your two paragraphs should contain a total of about 542-593 words. Here are some pointers to keep in mind as you write:
- Writing is thinking is writing
- Sloppy writing is sloppy thinking is...
- Make sure every sentence you write is both specific and necessary to your goal
- Make sure you understand every sentence you write
- Make sure each paragraph has a main point or objective
- Make sure you edit edit edit edit edit to catch mistakes in grammar, diction, or logic. Read your essay out loud as a good way to check for infelicities of argument or style.