In language there are only differences... A difference generally implies positive terms between which the difference is set up; but in language there are only differences without positive terms. 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. Difference makes character just as it makes value and unit.
— Ferdinand de Saussure, 'Course in General Linguistics'
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