Meaning arises not from infinite play but from a contingent, arbitrary stop.

Evidence

We have then to go on thinking beyond that mere playfulness into the really hard game which the play of difference actually means to us historically. For if signification depends upon the endless repositioning of its differential terms, meaning in any specific instance depends on the contingent and arbitrary stop, the necessary break. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 218

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the mechanism by which meaning is cut out of the endless sliding of the signifier — the contingent stop.
• XREF: This is Hall’s own gloss on Derridean différance as it applies to the politics of identity — connects to how Islamophobia readings will need to hold identity and difference together.