| |
Semiotics and structuralism view the alphabet as nothing more than a
coding system for our verbal language. The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the
principle of linguistic value which theorizes that the identity of a signifier (letter) rests not
in the signifier itself, but solely in its relation to other signifiers. This would suggest that
independent of words and sentences the individual letterform has no intrinsic value and therefore
must be judged in this holistic way. When one looks at the intentions of the De Stijl and Bauhaus
type designers one immediately recognizes their desire to call attention to the system of their
fonts as a whole rather to the individual letterforms. This seems to support, in typographic terms,
what the post-structuralist Jacques Derrida was looking for in his pursuit of “a form or function
organized according to an internal legality in which elements have meaning only in the solidarity of
the correlation or their opposition”.21 |
 |
|
