Saussure argues that syntagmatic relations are more like multiplication than addition. Adding – eux to desir is not putting together “independent units”; rather the two “form a product, a combination of interdependent elements, their value deriving solely from their mutual contributions within a higher unit.”
At another level, we can say the same about sentences: Words are not added up in a sentence, but the sentence is the product of something more like multiplication, the product of the interdependent elements of the sentence.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Mind’s Profane and Sacred Loves
The teachers you have make all the difference in your life. That they happened to come into…
History’s Pro Tips on Iran
Nothing in human experience compares to the wars of the last 120 years. Their scope has grown…
Paul Ehrlich, False Prophet
Paul Ehrlich, noted author of The Population Bomb, died last week. Few people have been so consequentially…
