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: ([[Fr]]. ''[[signifiant]]'')
==Jacques Lacan=======Ferdinand de Saussure=====[[Lacan]] takes the term "[[signifier]]" from the work of the Swiss [[linguist]], [[Ferdinand de Saussure]].
The term was not used by [[Freud]], who was unaware of [[Saussure]]'s work.
According to [[Saussure]], the [[signifier]] is the phonological element of the [[sign]]; not the actual sound itself, but the [[mental]] [[image]] of such a sound.
In [[Saussure]]'s terms, the [[signifier]] is the "acoustic image" which signifies a [[signified]].<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p.66--7</ref>
=====Primacy of the Signifier=====Whereas [[Saussure]] argues that the [[signifier]] and the [[signified]] are mutually interdependent, [[Lacan]] argues states that the [[signifier]] is primary and produces the [[signified]].
The [[signifier]] is first of all a [[meaning]]less [[material]] element in a closed differential [[system]]. The '; this "signifier without the signified' " is called by [[Lacan]] the '"pure signifier', " though this is a question of logical rather than chronological precedence.
<blockquote>"Every real signifier is, as such, a signifier that signifies nothing. The more the signifier signifies nothing, the more indestructible it is."<ref>{{S3}} p.185</ref></blockquote>
=====The Subject and the Unconscious=====
It is these [[meaning]]less indestructible [[signifier]]s which determine the [[subject]]; the effects of the [[signifier]] on the [[subject]] constitute the [[unconscious]], and hence also constitute the whole of the field of [[psychoanalysis]].
=====Basic Units of Language=====Thus for [[Lacan]] [[language ]] is not a [[system]] of [[sign]]s (-- as it was for [[Saussure]]) -- but a [[system]] of [[signifier]]s.
[[Signifier]]s are the basic units of [[language]], and they are "subjected to the double condition of being reducible to ultimate differential elements and of combining according to the laws of a closed order."<ref>{{E}} p.152</ref>
=====Differential Elements=====By the phrase "reducible to ultimate differential elements," [[Lacan]] follows [[Saussure]] in asserting the fundamentally differential character of the ]][[signifier]].
[[Saussure]] states that in [[language]] there are no positive terms, only [[difference]]s.<ref>Saussure, 1916: 120</ref>
=====Signifying Chains=====By the phrase '"combining according to the laws of a closed order', " [[Lacan]] asserts that [[signifier]]s are combined in [[signifying chain]]s according to the [[law]]s of [[metonymy]].
=====Symbolic Order=====
The [[signifier]] is the constitutive unit of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] because it is integrally related with the concept of [[structure]].
The field of the [[signifier]] is the field of the [[Other]], which [[Lacan]] calls "the battery of signifiers."
=====That Which Represents a Subject for Another Signifier=====
[[Lacan]] defines a [[signifier]] as "that which represents a subject for another signifier," in opposition to the [[sign]], which "represents something for someone."<ref>{{S11}} p.207</ref>
To be more precise, one [[signifier]] (called the [[master]] [[signifier]], and written '''S1''') represents the [[subject]] for ''all other [[signifier]]s '' (written '''S2''').However, no [[signifier]] can [[signify]] the [[subject]].
However, no [[signifier]] can ''[[signify]]'' the [[subject]].
=====Sigmund Freud=====
Although the term '[[signifier]]' is [[absent]] from [[Freud]]'s work, [[Lacan]]'s use of the term focuses attention on a recurrent theme in [[Freud]]'s writings.
[[Freud]]'s examples of [[psychoanalytic]] [[interpretation]]s constantly focus on purely formal [[linguistic]] features.
Thus [[Lacan]]'s insistence that the [[analyst]] attend to the [[signifier]]s in the [[analysand]]'s [[speech]] is not really an innovation in [[technique]] but an attempt to theorise [[Freud]]'s own method in more rigorous terms.
Not only can units of [[language]] smaller than words [[word]]s ([[phoneme|morpheme]]s and [[phoneme]]s) or larger than [[word]]s (phrases and sentences) also function as [[signifier]]s, but so also can [[linguistic|non-[[linguistic]] things such as [[object]]]s, relationships and [[symptom]]atic [[act]]s.<ref>{{S4}} p.288</ref>
=====Differential Nature of the Signifier=====
The single condition which characterises something as a [[signifier]], for [[Lacan]], is that it is inscribed in a [[system]] in which it takes on value purely by virtue of its [[difference]] from the other elements in the [[system]].
=====Unstable Meaning======
It is this differential nature of the [[signifier]] which means that it can never have a univocal or fixed [[meaning]];<ref>{{S4}} p.289</ref> on the contrary, its [[meaning]] varies according to the [[position]] which it occupies in the [[structure]].
==See Also==* [[Language]]* [[Metaphor]]* [[Materialism]]* [[Sign]]* [[Signification]]* [[Signified]]* [[Signifying Chain]]* [[Subject]]
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:TermsLanguage]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:PsychoanalysisTerms]]{{Les termes}}[[Category:OK]]
