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===Ferdinand de Saussure===The [[Image:SAUSSUREANSIGN.giflinguistics|thumb|300px|right|The Saussurean Signlinguistic]]According to [[Saussure]], the [[sign]] is the basic unit a unification of [[language]] The [[sign]] is constituted by two elements: # a conceptual element sound-image (which [[Saussure]] calls the [[signified]]), and # a phonological element (called the [[signifier]]).  The two elements are linked by an arbitrary but unbreakable bond. =====Saussurean Sign=====[[Saussure]] represented the [[sign]] by means of with a diagram.<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p.114</ref> In this diagram, the line between the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] represents union, the reciprocal implication of the two elements. =====Jacques Lacan=====[[Lacan]] takes up the [[Saussure]]an concept of the [[sign]] in his "linguistic turn" in [[psychoanalysis]] during the 1950s, but subjects it to several modifications. During the 1950s [[Lacan]] began to make us of [[Saussure]]'s concepts but adapted them in important ways. =====Relation between Signifier and Signified=====Firstly, whereas [[Saussure]] posited the reciprocal implication between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] (they are as mutually interdependent as two sides of a sheet of paper), [[Lacan]] argues that the relation between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] is extremely unstable.  =====Primacy of the Signifier=====Secondly, [[Lacan]] asserts the [[existence]] of an order of "pure signifiers," where [[signifier]]s exist prior to [[signified]]s; this [[order]] of purely logical [[structure]] is the [[unconscious]]. This amounts to a destruction of [[Saussure]]'s concept of the [[sign]]; for [[Lacan]], a [[language]] is not composed of [[sign]]s but of [[signifier]]s. =====Saussurean algorithm=====[[Image:SAUSSUREANALGORITHM.gif|right|thumb|Saussurean algorithm|The Saussurean algorithm]] To illustrate the contrast between his own views and those of [[Saussure]], [[Lacan]] replaces [[Saussure]]'s diagram of the [[sign]] with an [[Saussurean algorithm|algorithm]] which, [[Lacan]] argues, should be attributed to [[Saussure]] -- and is thus now sometimes referred to as the "[[Saussure]]an algorithm."<ref>{{E}} p.149</ref> The '''S''' stands for the [[signifier]], and the '''s''' for the [[signified]]; the position of the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] is thus inverted, showing the primacy of the [[signifier]] (which is capitalized, whereas the [[signifier]] is reduced to mere lower-case italic). The arrows and the circle are abolished, representing the [[absence]] of a stable or fixed relation between [[signifier]] and [[signified]]. The [[bar]] between the [[signifier]] and the [[signified]] no longer represents union but the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]]. For [[Lacan]], this [[algorithm]] defines "the [[topography]] of the [[unconscious]]."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref>