ABSTRACT
Second, linguistics provided a number of concepts which could be used eclectically or metaphorically in discussing literary works: signifier and signified, langue and parole, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, the levels of a hierarchical system, distributional and integrative relations, the diacritical or differential nature of meaning, and other subsidiary notions such as shifters or performative utterances. These concepts can, of course, be employed either skilfully or ineptly; they do not in themselves, by virtue of their linguistic origin, produce insights. But the use of such terms may help one to identify relations of various kinds, both actual and virtual, within a single level or between levels, which are responsible for the production of meaning.
