You can't use a bulldozer to study orchids

In the excerpt of Course in General Linguistics you read this week, Saussure introduces several key ideas about language and the sign:

• "in language there are only differences without positive terms" (40)
• "the bond between the signifier and the signified is radically arbitrary" (35)
• "signs function not through their intrinsic value but through their relative position" (39)

For your post due next Wednesday (11/6, 7 p.m.), offer an explanation of one of these three statements. What does Saussure mean? How do you understand the statement? Give examples (other than Saussure's or Barry's) to support your explanation.

If you are so inclined and want to show off (and earn "extra points" and/or my undying respect), work in a commentary on the lyric that is the title of the post. What does the lyric mean? What does the song in which the lyric appears mean? Do the lyric and song really have anything to do with Saussure? With language? With structuralism?