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> And besides, when I make phrases, is it really me who is speaking? How can anyone ever say anything original, personal, unique to him, when by definition language obliges us to draw from a well of pre-existing words?

You need to learn the distinction between a word (the symbol) and the concept (the meaning) of language. By your standard a Frenchman could never communicate with an Englishman but we know that is not the case.

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I probably could’ve/should’ve been clearer that I was quoting Laurent Binet’s _The Seventh Function of Language_ in a (likely poor) attempt at self-deprecating humor. For me, the point of the passage is that we’re all just recombining language, in the best cases cleverly to express our “own” ideas, in the worst, just attempting to pass off other’s ideas as our own.

Your earlier comment on adulthood reminded me of 7th function, and I didn’t want it to be too obvious I was quoting the book, because I thought it would ruin the joke. I’m not actually arguing that meaning can’t travel across language, and I certainly doubt that Binet would make that argument in earnest.

If your reply is a riff on Simon’s signifier/signified distinction, then I may have missed the joke and ended up reenacting the book.

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