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==Jacques 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 (Saussure, 1916: 66--7).==
=====Primacy of the Signifier=====
Whereas [[Saussure]] argues that the [[signifier]] and the '''[[signified]]''' are ''mutually interdependent'', [[Lacan]] states that the [[signifier]] is ''primary'' and produces the '''[[signified]]'''.
=====[[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]].
=====Differential Elements=====By the phrase "reducible to ultimate differential elements," [[Lacan defines a signifier as 'that which represents a subject for another signifier', ]] follows [[Saussure]] in opposition to the sign, which 'represents something for someone'. (Sll, 207). To be more precise, one signifier (called asserting the master signifier, and written Si) represents fundamentally differential [[character]] of the subject for all other signifiers (written S2)∑ However, no [[signifier can signifv the subject]].
<blockquote>"The [[notion]] of structure and that of signifier appear inseparable."<ref>{{S3}} p. 184</ref></blockquote>
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 '''[[Image:SS1.gif]]''') represents the [[subject]] for ''all other [[signifier]]s'' (written '''[[Image:SS2.gif]]''').
However, no [[signifier]] can ''[[signify]]'' the [[subject]].
=====Sigmund Freud=====
Although the term "[[signifier]]" is [[absent]] from [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]], [[Lacan]]'s use of the term focuses attention on a recurrent theme in [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|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 theorize [[Freud]]'s own method in more rigorous terms.
=====Words and Non-Linguistic Things=====
While it is [[true]] that when [[Lacan]] talks [[about]] [[signifiers]] he is often referring to what [[others]] would call simply "[[word]]s," the two terms are not equivalent.
Not only can units of [[language]] smaller than [[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 characterizes 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==
{{See}}
* [[Language]]
* [[Metaphor]]
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* [[Materialism]]
* [[Sign]]
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* [[Signification]]
* [[Signified]]
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* [[Signifying Chain]]
* [[Subject]]
{{Also}}
==External Links==
* "[https://www.lacanonline.com/2010/06/what-does-lacan-say-about-the-signifier/ What Does Lacan Say About... The Signifier?]", Owen Hewitson - LacanOnline.com
== References ==
<references/>
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[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]