Saussure and Structuralism

Ok, so lets get this straight. This is a car.

BUT, the word car does not actually mean car. Why is C-A-R different from C-A-T? That over there could just as easily be a C-A-T as it could be a C-A-R. This has been the topic of Professor Alan Girelli's Rhetoric of Visual Design for the past few weeks. It's exciting stuff and really makes you think about the meaning of language.

For example, remember that book, Frindle by Andrew Clemens? It's about this unruly boy who, as an act of teacher-student rebellion, decides to call what we say is a P-E-N a F-R-I-N-D-L-E. His teacher is defiant and as student by student joins him in referring to pens as frindles, he does worse in school and his teacher gets him in trouble with the school.

Then, at the end, there is a narrative of the teacher walking up to a house, carrying a dictionary, and knocking on the door. The grown up boy opens the door and sees his teacher. His old teacher gives him the new edition of the dictionary, which happens to have F-R-I-N-D-L-E in it. They hug, part ways, and you're left with a feeling that you can accomplish anything and that maybe you'll starts calling a L-A-M-P a M-I-N-D-A-M-I-N-G.

Was Clemens aware of Saussure? I certainly did not know anything about Saussure and the arbitrariness of language. Clemens got me thinking, though. Language is not constant. If it were, humans would all speak the same language and even when separated the same one would form. This isn't the case though. Languages form all the time from French to English, from Chinese to Gaelic. They aren't the same and some have completely different rules, syllables, and tonal qualities.

So, language must be arbitrary. It must be someone looks at a big, gray, roundish thing on the ground and says, "rock." Then, if he goes and points to it and shows it to his friend, saying "rock," then his friend will call it that. Then the whole tribe of humans will. But, the question is, why didn't he call the big, gray, roundish thing "peanut" or "book"? Why... how do languages develop?

I don't have the answer. I don't think anyone does. But I think understanding the devlopment of language can eventually lead to a better understanding of the evolution of humanity. Missing links are certinally something to be on the look for, but maybe filling in some of the other gaps is necessary, too.

Please, let me know any thoughts you have :-)