ABSTRACT
The theory of language presented in chapter I argues against the commonplace assumption that meaning is a “content” translated into words. Language structures possibilities of meaning because it structures relations of difference (the basis of the sign), of similarity (the basis of paradigms), of placement (the basis of syntagms). Analysis of a text therefore requires breaking it into segments in order to expose the paradigmatic, syntagmatic, and semiotic markings that organize relations of similarity, placement, or difference. Such markings inscribe the text with various stresses, making it appear “stress-full” in several ways. The markings emphasize certain signifiers over others; they put pressure on the seemingly “natural” and closed relation between signifiers and signifieds; and they can strain understanding, causing a reader to ask, what does this word, phrase, sentence mean? These markings of stress (emphasis, pressure, and strain) are signs of textuality: language conceived of as “productivity, the production of a multiplicity of signifying effects” (Young 1981: 8).
