The Thought Occurs

Thursday 27 February 2014

Saussure, Semiotic Systems And Meaning

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 509):
Meaning can be thought of (and was thought of by Saussure) as just a kind of social value; but it is value in a significantly different sense — value that is construed symbolically. Meaning can only be construed symbolically, because it is intrinsically paradigmatic, as Saussure understood and built into his own definition of valeur. Semiotic systems are social systems where value has been further transformed into meaning.