Saussure Reading

I found that the reading by Ferdinand de Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics (1916) offered many interesting points. He divided the text into four main points: (1) Language as organized thought coupled with sound (2) Linguistic value from a conceptual viewpoint (3) Linguistic value from a material viewpoint and finally (4) The sign considered in its totality. Saussure focuses on what he calls language, that's "a system of signs that express ideas," and suggests that it may be divided into two components: langue, referring to the abstract system of language that is internalized by a given speech community, and parole, the individual acts of speech and the "putting into practice of language". Saussure's investigation throughout this piece is the linguistic unit or sign. He feels very strongly that language cannot be considered a collection of names for a collection of objects. The basic principle of what arbitrariness of the sign truly is can be explained by the fact that there is no natural reason why a particular sign should be attached to a particular concept. This made me think of different logos for different companies used in our culture to represent a certain language or word. A sign in itself has its own language. When you look at a sign for a business or corporation, the first thing that pops out is the visual aspects such as images or colors that signify the title of the business. This common marketing strategy used in today’s society relates back to Saussure’s example about the tree and its signifier. In the figure below, the tree itself is impossible to represent because the signified is entirely conceptual. Even the picture of a tree Saussure used to represent the signified is itself just another signifier. This example reiterates Saussure's argument that “it is only the consistency in the system of signs that allows communication of the concept each sign signifies.” This concept is a little difficult to fully take in due to the fact that our society is so concentrated around signifiers and signs representing so much more such as words or a language.