okay -- written words are more or less arbitrary stand-ins for spoken words. and according to saussure, actually, even spoken words are arbitrary signs for referents in the real world. so they don't have inherent content -- but when you say "we make them mean something", i mean, once we've done that, they do mean something, don't they? and a word like "cookie" has (is given) not just a different actual meaning from a word like "and", but also a different kind of meaning. that's my point, and one that seems both (a) intuitive and (b) not really the relevant to the paper i'm writing. :-)

i hope i will see you soon. it looks like i'll be up for new year's, possibly with the bro and fsil, and then painting my new place thursday and/or friday -- want to help? :-D