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In the essay "Différance" Derrida indicates that ''différance'' gestures at a number of heterogeneous features which govern the production of [[text]]ual [[meaning]]. The first (relating to deferral) is the notion that [[words]] and signs can never fully summon forth what they mean, but can only be defined through appeal to additional words, from which they differ. Thus, meaning is forever "deferred" or postponed through an endless chain of signifiers. The second (relating to difference, sometimes referred to as ''espacement'' or "spacing") concerns the force which differentiates elements from one another and, in so doing, engenders binary oppositions and [[hierarchy|hierarchies]] which underpin [[meaning]] itself.

In the essay "Différance" Derrida indicates that ''différance'' gestures at a number of heterogeneous features which govern the production of [[text]]ual [[meaning]]. The first (relating to deferral) is the notion that [[words]] and signs can never fully summon forth what they mean, but can only be defined through appeal to additional words, from which they differ. Thus, meaning is forever "deferred" or postponed through an endless chain of signifiers. The second (relating to difference, sometimes referred to as ''espacement'' or "spacing") concerns the force which differentiates elements from one another and, in so doing, engenders binary oppositions and [[hierarchy|hierarchies]] which underpin [[meaning]] itself.

 

==Neither a word nor a concept==

==Neither a word nor a concept==

According to Derrida, Différance itself, is "neither a word, nor a concept," nor a thing.  Words and [[concepts]]/theories are themselves ''different'' from other words or concepts and this difference gives their meaning.  Despite the [[transcendentalism|transcendental]] overtones of this statement as indicating a condition of possibility of meaning, according to Derrida différance is not transcendental.  It is, as Derrida has remarked in his book ''Glas'', a "quasi-transcendental" concept, insofar as the difference between words both en[[gender]] meaning and forever defer meaning, différance serves as both the condition of possibility and the impossibility of meaning.

According to Derrida, Différance itself, is "neither a word, nor a concept," nor a thing.  Words and [[concepts]]/theories are themselves ''different'' from other words or concepts and this difference gives their meaning.  Despite the [[transcendentalism|transcendental]] overtones of this statement as indicating a condition of possibility of meaning, according to Derrida différance is not transcendental.  It is, as Derrida has remarked in his book ''Glas'', a "quasi-transcendental" concept, insofar as the difference between words both en[[gender]] meaning and forever defer meaning, différance serves as both the condition of possibility and the impossibility of meaning.