24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The term was not used by [[Freud]], who was unaware of [[Saussure]]'s work.
[[Lacan]] takes the term '[[signifier]]' from the work of the [[Swiss]] [[linguist]], [[Ferdinand de Saussure]].
According to [[Saussure]], the [[signifier]] is the phonological element of the [[sign]]; not the actual sound itself, but the [[mental]] [[image]] of such a sound.
In [[Saussure]]'s terms, the [[signifier]] is the '[["acoustic image]]' " which signifies a [[signified]].<ref>[[Saussure, ]]. 1916: 66--7</ref>
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[signifier]] is primary and produces the [[signified]].
Thus for [[Lacan]] language is not a [[system]] of [[sign]]s (as it was for [[Saussure]]) but a [[system]] of [[signifier]]s.
[[Signifier]]s are the basic units of [[language]], and they are "subjected to the double condition of being reducible to ultimate differential elements and of combining according to the laws of a closed order."<ref>{{E}} p.152</ref>
The field of the [[signifier]] is the field of the [[Other]], which [[Lacan]] calls "the battery of signifiers."
[[Lacan]] defines a [[signifier]] as "that which represents a subject for another signifier," in opposition to the [[sign]], which "represents something for someone."<ref>{{SllS11}} p.207</ref>
To be more precise, one [[signifier]] (called the [[master]] [[signifier]], and written SiS1) represents the [[subject]] for all other [[signifier]]s (written S2).
However, no [[signifier]] can [[signify]] the [[subject]].
