Meaning arises from relations between differences, not content resemblance

Evidence

The relation between the two levels is not one of direct reference, function, reflection, direct correspondence, or even ressemblance or analogy. It is the internal arrangement of the field of classifications which has been made to “resemble” the internal classification of the field of natural objects and men. “The resemblance is between these two systems of differences.” It is not the “resemblances but the differences which resemble one another.” — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 359

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures Saussurean-derived structuralist principle that systems relate through difference, not by resemblance of contents, which is core to Hall’s later work on articulation and identity.
• XREF: This prefigures Hall’s concept of articulation and difference-based identity formation developed in his later work on culture and race. — connects to: Difference is a generative relationship, not a fixed property of things — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 309; Distinction suppresses similarities just as adequation suppresses differences — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 80; Judgements of similarity depend on the available comparative frame, not just absolute difference. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 50