Signified

French: signified

The signified (French: signifié) refers to the conceptual component of a linguistic sign in classical Saussurean linguistics. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, however, the signified is radically redefined as a retroactive effect of the signifier, not its pre-given meaning. Rather than grounding language in referential content, the signified is seen as produced within the symbolic order through the dynamic play and sliding of signifiers. It is an effect of structure, not substance.

Saussure’s Model

In Ferdinand de Saussure’s dyadic model of the linguistic sign, language is composed of:

• the signifier (signifiant) – the sound-image, or the material aspect of the sign
• the signified (signifié) – the conceptual meaning associated with the signifier

For Saussure, the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary, yet they are presented as two sides of the same coin. Their unity is maintained by the synchronic structure of language, where meaning emerges not through inherent properties but through differences between signs. Each signified is determined by its relation to other signifieds in the system, not by direct correspondence to external reality.

Lacan’s Inversion

Lacan reinterprets Saussure through the lens of psychoanalysis, inverting the classical hierarchy. For Lacan, it is not the signified that determines the signifier, but the signifier that produces the signified. Meaning is no longer primary, but secondary—an effect generated through the articulation of the signifying chain.

$\frac{S}{s}$

In this formula, the signifier ($S$) is placed over the signified ($s$), marking its dominance. Lacan emphasizes that meaning is deferred, unstable, and always subject to slippage. The signified is not something already known or given, but something that emerges after the fact (après coup) through the retroactive structuring of language.

The signified is an effect of the signifier; there is no signified that preexists the signifier.

This insight is crucial to Lacan’s concept of the split subject (le sujet barré). The speaking subject is divided by language, always alienated from the “full” meaning it seeks. The signifier introduces a gap—a lack—into the subject's being, and it is within this gap that the signified is produced.

Floating Signifiers and Ambiguity

Because signifiers only gain meaning in relation to other signifiers, and because this relational network is incomplete, meaning is inherently ambiguous. Certain master terms or ideological concepts—referred to as floating signifiers—accumulate multiple and often contradictory meanings. Examples include “freedom,” “democracy,” or “the subject.”

These terms float within discourse, awaiting temporary anchoring points (points de capiton or quilting points) that stabilize meaning only momentarily. But these anchors are precarious and subject to shifting contexts.

Thus, in Lacanian theory, the signified is never fully graspable; it is always in motion, displaced, and subject to the metonymic sliding of the signifying chain.

Clinical Relevance

In the psychoanalytic clinic, this theoretical structure has profound implications. Because the unconscious is structured like a language, the analysand’s speech is not a direct expression of hidden content but a manifestation of unconscious structure. The signified that emerges in analysis is not simply what the patient “means,” but what is produced through their use of signifiers.

Slips of the tongue, dreams, jokes, and symptoms are sites where language breaks down or becomes excessive—revealing a surplus of signification that exceeds conscious control. This surplus points to the Real, that which resists symbolization entirely.

The analyst does not seek to interpret meaning in a traditional hermeneutic sense but to trace the signifying network—to hear how the subject is positioned by language and to identify the unconscious logic that gives rise to their suffering.

In this sense, the signified becomes a clinical effect, emerging within the transference through a process of symbolic articulation. It is not what the patient “really” means, but what is structured by the Other—by the symbolic field in which they speak.

See Also

Language Materialism

Metaphor Sign

Signification Signifier