De Saussure's Gymnastic Reversal

To argue that De Saussure is himself the father of Deconstruction would not be entirely unsupportable. In the “Linguistic Value” section of this weeks readings, he argues very convincingly for the arbitrary and differential nature of value in the signified/signifier relationship that determines the sign. Only through a series of negative definitions can the sign itself be fixed with value. It, whatever it is, is this only because it is not that or the other.
Moving forward logically from this position there is inherent in the language system no positive value; only relational value based on syntagmatic chains. Thus each definition is built on the negative foundation of not being other definitions. It is a simple step to realize there is no positive center at the heart of this chain of value. Pouring the foundation for your house in a space based on the fact that there are no other houses there does not guarantee solid land. It is far more likely to encounter air, space or water. Any coincidental striking of solid ground would be simply luck. Thus as De Saussure himself argues, any striking of a “natural relationship” between a signifier and its signified (i.e. onomatopoeia) is purely accidental.
But De Saussure has a problem. He is a linguist and must deal with the positive social fact of language. There is no reasonable denial of the fact that “meaning” exists even if culturally relative. Words (signs) have a real and palpable power for behavior and change. He also does not want to travel down the road where nothing actually means anything. Thus his very gymnastic reversal. By uniting two units valued negatively through difference, the sign becomes a positive. (Perhaps he is multiplying them!) Unfortunately his logic is not sound (at least in the form presented to us here in the anthology. The transition may be far less jarring in the complete work). He may have been better served by stating that despite the implications of the logic presented, in the social world language and the sign have a positive psychological power that defies the arbitrary and differential nature of the linguistic system. Perhaps we are all willing to suspend our disbelief for the purpose of communication.