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→Jacques Lacan
What interests [[Lacan]] is not the phenomena (external appearance) of [[language]] but the way [[language]] positions the [[subject]] in a [[symbolic]] [[structure]].
In respect of the latter, [[Lacan]] points out that 'the child already has an initial appreciation of the symbolism of language' well before he can speak, "well before the exteriorised appearance of language."<ref>{{SlS1}} p.179; {{S1}} p.54</ref>
However, the question of how this 'initial appreciation' of the symbolic comes about is almost impossible to theorise, since it is not a question of a gradual acquisition of one signifier after another but the 'all or nothing' entry into a 'universe' of [[signifier]]s.
