In Saussure’s essay he enlightens us by explaining that language only consists of differences.”In language there are only differences. Whether we take the signified or the signifier, language has neither ideas nor sounds that existed before the linguistic system, but only conceptual and phonic differences that have issued from the system”(862) In this quote Saussure is saying before we had a linguistic system there wasn’t any way to tell things apart because we had no meaning for it. We are unable to give a sign to the signified without already having a working linguistic system in place. After we come to an agreement with the contract we sign when we learn a language, and its rules, we are able to use this system to arbitrarily give concepts and phonics a meaning by giving it a sign. After having a linguistic system, we are able to differentiate the signified and signifier by knowing what they are not, and give them a sign. For example we know the sex of a human because of the genitalia of the human being. We know the sex of the person as a female because they do not possess male genitalia or vice versa. After making a linguistic system we figure out what the concept and phonic differences are by looking at other concepts and seeing that they don’t possess the same traits as them.After we come to this realization ,we are able to differentiate a male from a female and give it a sign. When looking at a cow or a dog we know what it is based upon what we know it isn’t. A cow is large and makes moo’s sounds. A dog is small and barks. This is how we know a dog isn’t a cow by the different traits these both possess. If we gave them both the same sign we wouldn’t have any way to tell the difference in our linguistic system.

Saussure goes on to explain that until we have a sign for a signified, and signifer they will always be negative. “But the statement that everything in language is negative is true only if the signified and the signifier are considered separately; when we consider the sign in it’s totality, we have something that is positive in it’s own class.”(862) When looking at language as only differences we see how negative it really is. In order to see the differences we have to think about what the concept isn’t to define what it is. Saussure is saying that when we bring the signified and the signified together we have a new meaning in the system. After finding the differences of traits from a male and a female, we are able to give it a sign. When we give the idea a sign it is no longer negative because it has a new meaning when the concept and sound are put together. When we say the word male we don’t immediately look for the negative differences between it and other words. Instead we identify each words meanings in a positive way in order to have a functional linguistic system.