【正确答案】正确答案：In Saussure's view, language is a system of signs, each of which consists of two parts; "signified" (concept) and "signifier" (sound image). And the relationship between these two parts is arbitrary. Therefore the linguist cannot attempt to explain individual signs in a piecemeal fashion. Instead he must try to find the value of a sign from its relations to others, or rather, its position in the system. The two principal types of relations which Saussure identified are Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic relations. The syntagmatic relation is a relation between one item and others in a sequence, or between elements which are all present. The paradigmatic (or associative) relation is a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a structure, or between one element present and the others absent. They can substitute for each other without violating syntactic rules. The syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations together, like the two axes of a coordinate, determine the identity of a linguistic sign. Syntagms and paradigms provide a structural context within which signs make sense; they are the structural forms through which signs are organized into codes.