Derrida often uses the epithet ‘classical’. It appears most often in his expression ‘classical metaphysics’ (S&P: 51; GS&P: 166), but also in ‘the classical concept of writing’ (SEC: 9), in ‘the classical opposition’ between speech and writing (SEC: 21), and in how signs can be eliminated ‘in the classical manner’ (S&P: 51). Derrida first uses the expression ‘classical semiology’ in ‘Différance’, to name the metaphysical system in which a sign takes the place of the thing in its absence:

Classical semiology is thus the semiology of presence, and the semiology of the epoch of classical metaphysics. Within this epoch, Derrida states, ‘the original and essential link to the phonè has never been broken. It would be easy enough to demonstrate this and I shall attempt such a demonstration later’ (OG: 11).