007 · Zero
°
The zero degree is therefore not a total absence (this is a common mistake), it is a significant absence. We have here a pure differential state; the zero degree testifies to the power held by any system of signs, of creating meaning ‘out of nothing’: ‘the language can be content with an opposition of something and nothing.’1
Paragraph break ≠ fragment break.
Fragment break = °
° = zero degree
° = ‘pure differential state’
° / fragment
° = /
The fragment does not stand alone. It exists in constellation with other fragments. It pushes against the hierarchy of signification.
The ‘zero degree’ is the unmarked term in a privative opposition. Meaning emerges through difference. The concept passes from phonology into semantics, where Barthes invokes the ‘zero sign’:
‘a “zero sign” is spoken of in cases where the absence of any explicit signifier functions by itself as a signifier’2
white space ≈ zero sign
° = mark
The ° gives the absence a form. The gap acquires a mark.
The ° performs the work of the barre oblique. It separates and connects.
° / °
Barthes leaves the binary principle unresolved. Complex systems may exceed ‘the opposition of a mark and a zero degree’.3
° = °
° / °