How do postmodernists explain the role of language in shaping meaning?

Postmodernists reject the traditional view that language acts as a "mirror of nature" or a transparent medium that represents an objective reality existing outside itself. Instead, they argue that language is a self-contained system where meaning is constructed rather than discovered.1

Drawing on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, postmodernists—most notably Jacques Derrida—contend that the meaning of a word is not a static entity or a pre-existing idea in the mind. Rather, meaning is generated through a network of contrasts and differences between words. Because every word’s meaning depends on its relationship to other words, which in turn depend on others, meaning is never fully "present" to a speaker or listener; it is endlessly "deferred" through an infinite chain of linguistic signs.123

Derrida characterized this process with the term différance, which captures both the act of differing and the act of deferring meaning. Consequently, postmodernists view language as a conceptual construct that shapes our understanding of reality, knowledge, and values, rather than a neutral tool for describing an independent world.2314