My mother's language added yet another complex of signs: her words conveyed meaning and betrayed her psychological and social background and her particular views of marriage as a social institution with personal implications. Layers of meaning were embedded into a single object in one moment of time.

Signs are as arbitrary as Saussure implied. However, Landry would not be wearing a gold band on her fourth (the "ring") finger if that object did not itself signify something in the cultural context. A finger has a name associated with the object, and marriage is the sign. The symbol of ring on a ring finger is nearly universal and yet at the same time it is arbitrary. It is not as if the ring finger is the only one that can wear a ring, and there is no reason why the condition of being married cannot be signified by a different symbol:...
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