Saussure’s “Course in General Linguistics” touches on the characteristics of language and the workings of it. He defines it as the “heterogenous mass of speech facts”. What we hear allows us to create an image in ours heads for what we see and it exists because we all (members of society) agreed to it (850). It can be studied thoroughly and we can create spaces in our brain to put the signs in. Saussure calls it a “a system if signs” that we then use to create those ideas, symbols, and signals. Concepts do not stand alone and mean something without us deciding it. He chooses to compare language to a sheet of paper as an analogy. Thought and sound are linked together like the front and back piece of a paper. By cutting one side, both parts end up torn. He says that language works in a smilier fashion. A sound of the word gets us to think about the ideas behind it, and vice versa. However, thought without sounds and sound without thought could not exist on its own (857). Saussure comes up with the signifier and the signified concept. The signifier is the direct object while the signified is the idea of it. For example, a tree has no natural meaning to it but when we as a society decide it will mean a plant with a trunk and branches. Thus, “tree” is the signifier and the large plant made of wood and branches is the signified. He mentions that sometimes, the value of the object tends to be confused with the signification. Once more, he uses the analogy of the two sheets of paper. If it is cut into two, there is clear difference than if it were cut into several pieces with the relation between the front and back pieces (858). He says that to resolve the issue of value, there must be a dissimilar thing- something than can be exchanged for what the value is and a similar thing that can be compared with that the thing the value is being determined (858). The value is not something that is permanent or set in stone because of it exchangeability. The biggest point he is making in this essay is that language evolves through the changes we as a society make. He describes words as being arbitrary with no fixed order. He states, “it is by purely arbitrary act that the grammarian groups them in one way than in another.” (866). 

The central point in Nietzsche’s argument is that words themselves do not carry meaning outside of the ones we have assigned it. Language is arbitrary, it is letters put together creating, sound. Nietzsche describes it as, “the copy of a nervous stimulation in sounds.” (766). In the same way we created language, we create truths and lies. We decide whether something is honest and whether it it deceptive. He explains that truth comes from metaphors and this comes from illusions. Both of which have become overused to the point where it it is no longer as valuable. He uses this to say our language, concepts, morals are subjective and exist because we created them. We see an object, pick a name for it, and put it in a mental category with others that are similar to it. The ones that do not fit the box we have created are deceptive. They are only considered as such because that is what we have decided. It is all subjective. He says that people have “a divided firmament of concepts above them”, making us architectural geniuses (769). We as humans are creating from something we must make ourselves. It is a man-made society. Nietzche uses the the example of a camel to showcase this idea of creating. If he makes up a definition for the word mammal and decides that a camel is a mammal, then that is a truth. The definition he has chosen works in accordance with the name he assigned. However, the name is not concrete or existing outside of the world he gave it. The animal he named a camel is such because he decided it. Otherwise, it remains nameless. We create images for sounds called words. If we think of a rock, for example, Nietzsche might argue that the name is subjective. We come up with a definition of what a rock is an upon seeing the object, we name it as such. We give it meaning. Thus, in our heads, we have this concepts or a rock being a solid mineral, as something rough, big or small. Then, the word “rock” sounds like what it is. It’s rough and the letters put together create the sound of what we named it. We link the concept to the word. The actual rock, in and of itself is meaningless. It is not a truth or a lie, it is just there until we choose to acknowledge it.