Signified
From No Subject
| French: signifié |
[edit] Ferdinand de Saussure
According to Saussure, the signified is the conceptual element of the sign. It is not the real object denoted by a sign -- the referent -- but a psychological entity corresponding to such an object.[1]
[edit] Jacques Lacan
[edit] Primacy of the Signifier
For Saussure, the signified has the same status as the signifier; both form equal sides of the sign. Lacan, on the other hand, asserts the primacy of the signifier, and argues that the signified is a mere effect of the play of signifiers, an effect of the process of signification produced by metaphor. In other words, the signified is not given, but produced.
[edit] Materialism of Language
Lacan's view is thus opposed to an expressionist view of language, according to which concepts exist in some pre-verbal state before being expressed in the material medium of language. In contrast to such a view, Lacan asserts the priority (logical rather than chronological) of the material element of language.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- ↑ Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics, ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. 1916. p.66-7
