Identities, differences, and analogies - The problem Saussure could not solve

This paper examines the problem of differential identification as posed in Saussures Cours de linguistique generale. The solution proposed by Ducrot s eems unlikely to have been Saussures own and would result in recognizing a proliferation of variants for every sign in the system. Saussures analogy w ith handwriting appears to provide a more promising line of approach, but i n the end leads to no less intractable difficulties.