- Structuralism and Saussure Ferdinand de Saussure Let's start by talking about structuralism in general as a philosophical stance or worldview. Structuralists are interested in the interrelationship between UNITS, also called surface phenomena, and RULES, which are the ways that units can be put together. An example is Tinkertoys. The units in a tinkertoy set are all the parts in the box: the ...www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/saussure.html