Ideas About Language and The Sign...

This past week I was introduced to several key ideas from Saussure about language and the sign, once again throwing myself into a state of major theoretical confusion, however, I have had some time to process. His idea that "the bond between the signifier and the signified is radically arbitrary" particularly caught my attention. I have come to believe what he is trying to say is that the signifier is what we say and hear, where as the signified is what we see, and the relationship between the two is completely random. This means to each individual when hearing or saying a particular word they will relate that word to their own personal experiences, in turn making the relationship between the signifier and signified arbitrary. This helps me to understand what is post structuralism because it is bascially saying there are no real truths to anything. Although we believe there is meaning to everything in the eyes of a post structuralist this is simply false hope.