A Tree

Difference, is the primary term for a Structuralist because in this theory difference causes meaning. Opposite meanings are what allow us to understand what it is our language is describing, what it is our language is giving life to.
Within this Structuralist concept of difference, there are two expressions of thought which allow us to understand language and together, through their difference, do they form the true meaning.
The Signifier represents the sound or image of a word in language while the Signified represents the idea or concept that word has in itself--"their combination produces a form, not a substance" (Saussuer, 35)
These terms and the meanings they give to a text will always work in this way, neverending, unchanging--arbitrary is the word chosen by Saussuer and this means that this path to discoverin meaning, can always be counted on.
This relationship, between sound and idea, Sigifier and Signified, has no outside influence on its meaning. There is only these two concepts and how they relate, or differ, to and from one another which gives them their meaning.
One a piece of paper their is an image of a tree and the word T-R-E-E written out, they can be next to each other or far away, one on top of the other even; but which one has the true meaning of the living being made of wood and plant cells and producing photosynthesis, and growin and changing outside on the front lawn. Which one, the image or the word, accurately describes what a tree really is, what its meaning is?
This is how I feel about Post-structuralism-no word or image correctly describes it for neither have the true meaning encased in their form, in their essence, at all.