graham, derrida

I found the Derrida reading very dense, and I had a difficult time getting through it. However, I believe that he was attempting to discuss difference and the way that there are many differences in language and the way that people interpret it. This relates to De Saussure. It reminded me of when Dr. Casey showed us the word ghoti, and asked us what it meant. No one knew, but it made perfect sense when he told us that it said “fish”. If you sound out ghoti, it does sound the same, but we did not look at it that way, because we are so used to the way that we see the words spelled in society. Derrida really focuses on language and words, and how they are able to function. There was one quote that really helped me to understand his main concept… “There never has been and never will be a unique word, a master name.” We give words meanings, and society chooses to accept these meanings. However, it seems weird to me that the same words have the possibility of having multiple meanings. Did we run out of letters to put together to form new words? Why would we have the same spelling for different meanings? This gets confusing. Also, the context of words is extremely necessary to know, because although the words may sound the same, they can be spelled differently (for example, sun and son). Language is something that is very difficult to understand because of all these differences and similarities. Even in the dictionary there are multiple meanings for the same words. Culture normalizes language, and that is the only reason why we accept the fact that it is so confusing. Something I thought was interesting as I was reading this is that people communicate with one another in an attempt to say the same things. However, there are multiple languages that exist in the world today. This only creates more differences, and as we all know if we have taken a foreign language, it can be very hard to learn other languages and understand what others are saying. The bottom line, and the main point that Derrida and De Saussure are making, is that there are always going to be differences no matter how intelligent you are, where you live, or what language you speak. This is because “in language, there are only diffrences.”