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===Ferdinand de Saussure===
[[Image:SAUSSUREANALGORITHM.gif|thumb|200px|right|The Saussurean Sign]]
According to [[Saussure]], the [[sign]] is the basic unit of [[language]]
The [[sign]] is constituted by two elements:
# the [[signified]], a [[conceptual]] element (or [[concept]]), and
# the [[signifier]], a phonological element (or sound-[[image]]).
The two elements are linked by an [[arbitrary]] but unbreakable bond.
=====Saussurean Sign=====
[[Saussure]] represented the [[sign]] by means of a diagram.<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p.114</ref> In this diagram, the line between the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] represents union, the reciprocal implication of the two elements. ([[Saussure]] put the [[signifier]] and the [[signified]] in an ellipse which indicates [[structure|structural unity]] of the [[sign]].)
=====Jacques Lacan=====
[[Lacan]] takes up the [[Saussure]]an concept of the [[sign]] in his "[[linguistic]] turn" in [[psychoanalysis]] during the 1950s, but [[subjects]] it to several modifications. During the 1950s [[Lacan]] began to make us of [[Saussure]]'s [[concepts]] but adapted [[them]] in important ways.
=====Relation between Signifier and Signified=====
Firstly, whereas [[Saussure]] posited the reciprocal implication between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] (they are as mutually interdependent as two sides of a sheet of paper), [[Lacan]] argues that the relation between [[signifier]] and [[signified]] is extremely unstable.
=====Primacy of the Signifier=====
Secondly, [[Lacan]] asserts the [[existence]] of an order of "pure [[signifiers]]," where [[signifier]]s [[exist]] prior to [[signified]]s; this [[order]] of purely [[logical]] [[structure]] is the [[unconscious]]. This amounts to a [[destruction]] of [[Saussure]]'s concept of the [[sign]]; for [[Lacan]], a [[language]] is not composed of [[sign]]s but of [[signifier]]s.
=====Saussurean algorithm=====
[[Image:SAUSSUREANALGORITHM.gif|right|thumb|Saussurean algorithm|The Saussurean algorithm]] To illustrate the contrast between his own views and those of [[Saussure]], [[Lacan]] replaces [[Saussure]]'s diagram of the [[sign]] with an [[Saussurean algorithm|algorithm]] which, [[Lacan]] argues, should be attributed to [[Saussure]] -- and is thus now sometimes referred to as the "[[Saussure]]an algorithm."<ref>{{E}} p.149</ref> The '''S''' stands for the [[signifier]], and the '''s''' for the [[signified]]; the [[position]] of the [[signified]] and the [[signifier]] is thus inverted, showing the primacy of the [[signifier]] (which is capitalized, whereas the [[signifier]] is reduced to mere lower-[[case]] italic). The arrows and the circle are abolished, representing the [[absence]] of a [[stable]] or fixed relation between [[signifier]] and [[signified]]. The [[bar]] between the [[signifier]] and the [[signified]] no longer represents union but the [[resistance]] inherent in [[signification]]. For [[Lacan]], this [[algorithm]] defines "the [[topography]] of the [[unconscious]]."<ref>{{E}} p. 163</ref>
==See Also==
{{See}}
* [[Enunciation]]
* [[Index]]
* [[Language]]
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* [[Metaphor]]
* [[Materialism]]
* [[Signification]]
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* [[Signified]]
* [[Signifying Chain]]
* [[Shifter]]
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* [[Subject]]
* [[Symbol]]
* [[Symptom]]
{{Also}}
== References ==
<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
<references/>
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:OK]]
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