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{{Top}}langue]]'', ''[[langage{{Bottom}}
=====Translation=====
It is important to note that the English word "[[language]]" corresponds to two French words: ''[[langue]]'' and ''[[langage]]''.
These two words have quite different meanings in [[Lacan]]'s work: ''[[langue]]'' usually refers to a specific [[language]], such as French or English, whereas ''[[langage]]'' refers to the system of [[language]] in general, abstracting from all particular languages.
=====Jacques Lacan=====
It is fundamentally the general structure of [[language]] (''[[langage]]''), rather than the differences between particular languages ('''[[langue]]s'') that interests [[Lacan]].
When reading [[lacanLacan]] in English it is therefore essential to be aware of which term is used in the original French; most of the time the French term will be ''[[langage]]''.
==One===Psychoanalytic Experience=====
Between 1936 and 1949 references to [[language]] are sparse, but they are significant; already in 1936, for example, [[Lacan]] emphasizes that [[language]] is constitutive of the psychoanalytic experience,<ref>{{Ec}} p.82</ref> and in 1946 he argues that it is impossible to understand [[madness]] without addressing the problem of [[language]].<ref>{{Ec}} p. 166</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s comments on [[language]] at this time do not contain any references to a specific [[linguistics|linguistic theory]], and instead are dominated by [[philosophy|philosophical allusions]], mainly in terms derived from [[Hegel]].
Thus [[language]] is seen primarily as a mediating element which permits the [[subject]] to attain recognition from the other.<ref>{{E}} p. 9</ref>
Thus he insists that [[langage]] is not a nomenclature.<ref>{{Ec}} p. 166</ref>
==Two===Anthropology and Phenomenology=====From 1950 to 1954 [[language]] begins to occupy the central position that it ill will hold in [[Lacan]]'s work thereafter.
In this period, [[Lacan]]'s discussion of [[language]] is dominated by references to [[Heideggerian]] [[phenomenology]] and, mor eimportantlymore importantly, to the [[anthropology]] of [[language]] ([[Anthropology|Maus, Malinowski, and Lévi-Strauss]].
[[Language]] is thus seen as [[structure|structuring ]] the [[law|social laws of exchange]], as a symbolic pact, etc.
There are also occasional references to rhetoric, but these are not elaborated.<ref>{{E}} p.169</ref>
There are a few allusions to [[Saussure]],<ref>{{S1}} p.248</ref> but in his famous "[[Rome Discourse]]" [[Lacan]] establishes an opposition between ''[[parole]]'' and ''[[language|langage]]'' (and not, as [[Saussure]] does, between ''[[parole]]'' and ''[[language|langue]]''.<ref>{{L}}. "''Fonction et champ de la parole et du langage en psychanalyse.''" 1953a. In {{E}} p.237-322. ("The function and field of speech and language in psychoanalysis.") In {{E}}. p.30-113</ref>
==Three"The Unconscious is Structured like a Language"==Between 1955 and 1970 [[language]] takes center stage and [[Lacan]] develops his classic thesis that "the unconscious is structured like a language."<ref>{{S11}} p.20</ref>
It is in this period that the names [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Roman Jakobson]] come to the fore in [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]]. ---
=====Structural Linguistics=====
[[Lacan]] takes up [[Saussure]]'s theory that [[language]] is a [[structure]] composed of differential elements, but whereas [[Saussure]] had stated this of ''[[language|langue]]'', [[Lacan]] states it of ''[[language|langage]]''.
[[Lacan]] then argues that the [[unconscious]] is, like [[language]], a [[structure]] of [[signifiers]], which also allows [[Lacan]] to formulate the category of the [[symbolic]] with greater precision.
In 1969 [[Lacan]] develops a concept of [[discourse]] as a kind of [[discourse|social bond]].
==Four===Psychotic Language=====
From 1971 on, the shift from [[linguistics]] to [[mathematics]] as the paradigm of [[science|scientificity]] is accompanied by a tendency to emphasize the poetry and ambiguity of [[language]], as is evident in [[Lacan]]'s increasing interest in the "[[psychotic]] [[language]]" of [[James Joyce]].<ref>{{L}}. "Joyce le symptôme." 1975a. In Jacques Aubert (ed.), ''Joyce avec Lacan''. Paris: Navarin, 1987.</ref>
[[Lacan]]'s own style reflects this change as it becomes ever more densely populated with puns and neologisms.
=====''Lalangue''=====[[Lacan]] coins the term ''[[language|lalangue]]'' (from the definite article ''la'' and the noun ''[[language|langue]]'') to refer to these non-communicative aspects of [[language]] which, by playing on ambiguity and homophony, give rise to a kind of ''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{S20}} p.126</ref>
The term "[[language]]" now becomes opposed to ''[[language|lalangue]]''.
''[[language|Lalangue]]'' is like the primary chaotic substrate of polysemy out of which [[language]] is constructed, almost as if [[language]] is some ordered superstructure sitting on top of this substrate:
<blockquote>"Language is without doubt made of ''lalangue''. It is an elucubration of [[knowledge ]] (''[[knowledge|savoir]]'') about ''lalangue''.<ref>{{S20}} p. 127</ref></blockquote>
==Lacanian Psychoanalysis==
This is a fundamental error, according to [[Lacan]], for three main reasons.
:1. Firstly, all [[human]] [[communication]] is inscribed in a [[linguistic]] [[structure]]; even "body language," is, as the term implies, fundamentally a form of ''[[language]]'', with the same [[structure|structural features]].
:2. Secondly, the whole aim of [[psychoanalytic treatment]] is to articulate the [[truth]] of one's [[desire]] in [[speech]] rather than in any other medium; the fundamental rule of [[psychoanalysis]] is based on the principle that [[speech]] is the only way to this [[truth]].
:3. And thirdly, [[speech]] is the only tool which the [[analyst]] has; therefore, any [[analyst]] who does not understand the way [[speech]] and [[language]] work does not understand [[psychoanalysis]] itself.<ref>{{E}} p.40</ref>
One consequence of [[Lacan]]'s emphasis on [[language]] is his recommendation that the [[analyst]] must attend to the formal features of the [[analysand]]'s [[speech]] (the [[signifiers]]), and not be sidetracked into an empathic attitude baseed on an [[imaginary]] understanding of the content (the [[signified]]).
<blockquote>"There is something in the symbolic function of human discourse that cannot be eliminated, and that is the role played in it by the imaginary."<ref>{{S2}} p.306</ref></blockquote>
The [[symbolic|symbolic dimension ]] of [[language]] is that of the [[signifier]] and [[speech|true speech]].
The [[imaginary]] dimension of [[language]] is that of the [[signified]], [[signification]], and [[speech|empty speech]].
[[Schema L]] represents these two dimensions of [[language]] by means of two axes which intersect.
The axis '''A-S ''' is [[language]] in its [[symbolic|symbolic dimension]]], the [[discourse]] of the [[Other]], the [[unconscious]].
The [[imaginary]] axis ''a'''-''a'' is [[language]] in its [[imaginary|imaginary dimension]] dimension, the wall of [[language]] which interrupts, distorts and inverts [[inversion|invert]]s the [[discourse]] of the [[Other]].
In [[Lacan]]'s words, "language is as much there to be found in the Other as to drastically prevent us from understanding him.<ref>{{S2}} p. 244</ref>
=====Languages and Codes=====
[[Lacan]] distinguishes between [[language]]s and [[code]]s; unlike [[code]]s, in [[language]] there is no stable one-to-one correspondence between [[sign]] and [[sign|referent]], nor between [[signified]] and [[signifier]].
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Analysand]]
* [[Analyst]]
* [[Code]]
* [[Discourse]]
* [[Linguistics]]
* [[Other]]
* [[Sign]]
* [[Signified]]
* [[Signifier]]
* [[Speech]]
* [[Structure]]
* [[Symbolic]]
{{Also}}
