Difference between revisions of "Signified"

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==Jacques Lacan==
 
==Jacques Lacan==
====Primacy of the Signifier=====
+
=====Primacy of the Signifier=====
 
For [[Saussure]], the [[signified]] has the same status as the [[signifier]]; both form equal sides of the [[sign]].  
 
For [[Saussure]], the [[signified]] has the same status as the [[signifier]]; both form equal sides of the [[sign]].  
  
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In other words, the [[signified]] is not given, but produced.
 
In other words, the [[signified]] is not given, but produced.
  
=====Priority of Language====
+
=====Priority of Language=====
 
[[Lacan]]'s view is thus opposed to an expressionist view of [[language]], according to which [[concepts]] exist in some pre-verbal state before being expressed in the [[material]] medium of [[language]].  
 
[[Lacan]]'s view is thus opposed to an expressionist view of [[language]], according to which [[concepts]] exist in some pre-verbal state before being expressed in the [[material]] medium of [[language]].  
  

Revision as of 02:23, 18 August 2006

Ferdinand Saussure

According to Saussure, the signified is the conceptual element of the sign.

It is not the real object denoted by a sign -- the referent -- but a psychological entity corresponding to such an object.[1]

Jacques Lacan

Primacy of the Signifier

For Saussure, the signified has the same status as the signifier; both form equal sides of the sign.

Lacan, on the other hand, asserts the primacy of the signifier, and argues that the signified is a mere effect of the play of signifiers, an effect of the process of signification produced by metaphor.

In other words, the signified is not given, but produced.

Priority of Language

Lacan's view is thus opposed to an expressionist view of language, according to which concepts exist in some pre-verbal state before being expressed in the material medium of language.

In contrast to such a view, Lacan asserts the priority (logical rather than chronological) of the material element of language.

See Also

References

  1. Saussure, Ferdinand. (1916) Course in General Linguistics, ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p.66-7