Changes

=====Linguistic Definition=====The term '"[[shifter]]' " was introduced into [[linguistics]] by [[linguist]] [[Otto Jespersen]] to refer to those elements in [[language]] whose general [[meaning]] cannot be defined without reference to the [[message]] (to describe a class of words whose [[meaning]] varies according to their situation or whose references varies).

=====Roman Jakobson=====For [[Jakobson]], a [[shifter]] is a term whose [[meaning]] cannot be determined without referring to the [[message]] that is [[being ]] [[communicate]]d between a sender and a receiver.<ref>[[Roman Jakobson|Jakobson, Roman]]. 1957. "Shifters, [[verbal]] [[categories]], and the Russian verb," in ''Selected Writings'', vol. II, ''[[Word]] and Language'', The [[Hague]]: Mouton, 1971. p. 132</ref>

=====Examples=====Personal pronouns are [[shifter]]s: the word '"I' " designates both the [[speaker ]] or sender who says '"I' " and the '"I' " contained in the [[message]] that is sent.

For example the pronouns '"I' " and '"you'", as well as [[words ]] like '"here' " and '"now'", and the tenses, can only be [[understood ]] by reference to the context in which they are uttered.

=====Roman Jakobson==========General Meaning=====[[Roman Jakobson]] developed the [[concept ]] in an article published in 1957.

Before this article, "the peculiarity of the personal pronoun and [[other ]] shifters was often believed to consist in the [[lack ]] of a single, constant, general meaning."<ref>[[Roman Jakobson|Jakobson, Roman]]. 1957. "Shifters, verbal categories, and the Russian verb," in ''Selected Writings'', vol. II, ''Word and Language'', The Hague: Mouton, 1971. p. 132</ref>

[[Jakobson]] argues that [[shifter]]s do have a single general [[meaning]]; for example the personal pronoun "I " always means "the person uttering I".

This makes the [[shifter]] a '"[[symbol]]'. "

=====Indexical Symbol=====[[JakobsoJakobson]] concludes that [[shifter]]s combine both [[symbolic]] and [[index]]ical functions and "belong therefore to the [[class ]] of indexical [[symbols]]."<ref>[[Roman Jakobson|Jakobson, Roman]]. 1957. "Shifters, verbal categories, and the Russian verb," in ''Selected Writings'', vol. II, ''Word and Language'', The Hague: Mouton, 1971. p. 132.</ref>

Also, since grammar is implicated in ''[[parole]]'', the ''[[langue]]''/''[[parole]]'' [[distinction ]] is put into question.

=====Jacques Lacan=====Following [[Jakobson]], [[Lacan]] uses the term '"[[shifter]]' " (in [[English]]) to show the problematic and undecidable [[nature ]] of the '"I' " (''Je'').

=====Division of the Subject=====This [[divisiodivision]] of the '"I' " is not merely illustrative of the [[splitting]] of the [[subject]]; it is that [[split]].

<blockquote>"Indeed, the I of the enunciation is not the same as the I of the statement, that is to say, the shifter which, in the statement, designates him."<ref>{{S11}} p.139</ref></blockquote>

{{See}}* [[JakobsonEnunciation]]* [[symbolicIndex]]||* [[symbolLanguage]]* [[statementMeaning]]||* [[enunciationSignifier]]* [[linguisticsSplit]]* ''[[langue]]''||* ''[[paroleSubject]]''* [[splittingSymbol]]* [[subject]]{{Also}}

[[Category:ConceptsOK]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]][[Category:Linguistics]]__NOTOC__