| Meaning is thus the product
of relation, and the meaningful properties
of a definition are no less results of relating than those of any other
expressive construct. And yet meaning would always be completely
relative if it were not for the mediation of convention - the illusion
that some associations of a symbolic element are 'primary' and self-evident.
If meaning is based on relations, then the good, solid feeling of 'absolute'
denotation (upon which so many linguistic epistemologies are founded) is
an illusion grounded in nonrelation, or tautology.
Roy Wagner 1975, p.39 |