Signifiers could symbolize multiple signifieds, which might act as signifiers for more signifieds, ad infinitum. The asterisks represent a sliding gap between the signifier and signified, allowing the signifier to have several different meanings depending on the context in which it is used, or several meanings at once. This multiplicity of meaning, or polysemism , separates Derrida's view on language from that of Saussure's, who believed that only one meaning could occur in context, not several. Even individual words have multiple meanings, depending on their use. Derrida believes language to be all-encompassing.
Language is like a swirling vortex with no starting points, ending points, or boundaries.
The first, provisional, reading assumes that the text has an intelligible meaning, and the signifiers stand for determinable signifieds. Each word or icon obtains meaning through the aggregate meaning of the words or icons already encountered, and defers its meaning to succeeding words or icons. This continuum of meaning is what Derrida refers to as the trace . Therefore, meaning partially exists in its absence, for the entire meaning lies somewhere else historically in the trace. The context of our social history, or the trace, dictates to us that such an exclamation acts as a warning for us to get away from danger.