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=====Roman Jakobson=====
[[Lacan]] borrows the term "[[code]]" from [[Roman Jakobson]]'s theory of [[communication]].
=====Index and Signifier=====
Whereas the elements of a [[language]] are [[signifier]]s, the elements of a [[code]] are ''[[indices]]''.
The fundamental difference is that there is a fixed bi-univocal (one-to-one) relationship between an [[index]] and its [[referent]], whereas there is no such relationship between a [[signifier]] and a [[referent]] or between a [[signifier]] and a [[signified]].
=====Ambiguity and Equivocation=====Because of the bi-univocal relation of [[indices]] and [[referent]]s, [[code]]s lack what [[Lacan]] regards as the fundamental feature of [[human]] [[language]]s: the potential for ambiguity and equivocation.<ref>{{L}} (1973b) 'L'Étourdit', ''Scilicet'', no. 4, 1973. pp. 5-52.</ref> =====Ambiguity of Definition=====
[[Lacan]] is not always consistent in maintaining this opposition between [[code]] and [[language]].
In the [[seminar]] of 1958-9, for example, when presenting the [[elementary cell]] of the [[graph of desire]], he designates one point as the [[code]], which he also designates as the place of the [[Other]] and the battery of [[signifier]]s.
In this case, it is clear that the term "[[code]]" is being used in the same sense as the term "[[language]]," namely, to designate the set of [[signifier]]s available to the [[subject]].</ref>
==See Also==
* [[Communication]]
* [[Index]]
* [[Intersubjectivity]]
* [[Language]]
* [[Signified]]
* [[Signifier]]
* [[Referent]]
<references/>
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:OK]]
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