Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“In this kind of representational system, the sign is not a supplement to the reality it designates but a merely differential marker. But this is possible only because the classification system is secondary; the significance of its designata –books–is taken for granted as determined elsewhere. We put a book in the library only once it has met a minimal criterion of significance; the true structural system exists outside the scene on which that significance emerges and is recognized. In contrast, the separation between a primary cultural system such as language and its principle of emergence is a construct that reality can resemble for a time but never obey, any more than one can draw a perfect circle on the blackboard; significance must be constantly renewed, and the sign reaffirmed once more through the deferral of its worldly object. What associates meaning with différance is that it is assigned on a scene in which we differentiate the referent from its background by deferring any attempt to appropriate it for ourselves–which is by the same token to renounce not merely appropriating but also turning away from the object. The other potential members of the paradigm that limit the meaning of the sign participate in this deferral only as elements of this “profane” background. Deferral is not a consequence of the paradigm; it is rather the paradigm that is a consequence of deferral, which alone permits objects and their meanings to oppose one another.”

— Eric Gans, Originary Analysis, Revisited · Saturday, January 15th, 2005 · Chronicles of Love & Resentment