How did Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguistic theories influence Jacques Derrida?

Jacques Derrida’s work was significantly influenced by the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, particularly regarding the nature of linguistic signs. Saussure posited that the meanings of words are not natural or fixed but are instead determined by their arbitrary relationships and contrasts with other words within a language system.12

Derrida extended this insight to argue that meaning is never fully "present" or fixed by an original intention. Instead, he proposed that meaning is created through the "play" of differences between words. Building on this, he coined the term différance—which signifies both a difference and an act of deferring—to describe how the meaning of any word is endlessly deferred in an infinite chain of references, where each word carries the "traces" of others.12

While Derrida utilized Saussure’s structuralist framework, he also critiqued it, ultimately moving toward poststructuralism. By emphasizing that meaning is never stable or fully present, Derrida challenged the "logocentrism" of Western philosophy, which traditionally sought to ground truth in concepts existing outside or prior to language.12