The Signifier and the Signifired

Saussure stressed that the signifier and the signified were as inseparable as the two sides of a piece of paper. They were ‘intimately linked’ in the mind ‘by an associative link’ – ‘each triggers the other’.

So it’s interesting to consider the slippage between the signified and the signifier, the moment a gun is fired in this drawing, a sketch predating the often-used comedy-sketch-line: ‘Is that a canoe in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?’