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==Jacques Lacan==
=====Ferdinand de Saussure=====
[[Lacan]] takes the term "[[signifier]]" from the [[work ]] of [[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|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p. 66-7</ref>
=====Primacy of the Signifier=====
Whereas [[Saussure]] argues that the [[signifier]] and the '''[[signified]]''' are ''mutually interdependent'', [[Lacan]] states that the [[signifier]] is ''primary'' and produces the '''[[signified]]'''.
The [[signifier]] is first of all a [[meaning]]less [[material]] element in a ''closed differential [[system]]''; this "'''signifier without the signified'''" is called by [[Lacan]] the "'''pure signifier'''", though this is a question of [[logical ]] rather than [[chronological ]] precedence.
<blockquote>"Every [[real ]] signifier is, as such, a signifier that signifies [[nothing]]. The more the signifier signifies nothing, the more indestructible it is."<ref>{{S3}} p. 185</ref></blockquote>
=====[[The Subject ]] and the Unconscious===== It is these [[meaning]]less indestructible [[signifier]]s which determine the [[subject]]; the effects of the [[signifier]] on the [[subject]] constitute the [[unconscious]], and hence also constitute the [[whole ]] of the field of [[psychoanalysis]].
=====Basic Units of Language=====
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>
=====Differential Elements=====
By the phrase "reducible to ultimate differential elements," [[Lacan]] follows [[Saussure]] in asserting the fundamentally differential [[character ]] of the [[signifier]].
[[Saussure]] states that in [[language]] there are no positive terms, only [[difference]]s.<ref>[[Saussure|Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. (1916) ''[[Saussure|Course in General Linguistics]]'', ed. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, trans. Wade Baskin, Glasgow: Collins Fontana. p. 120</ref>
=====Symbolic Order=====
The [[signifier]] is the constitutive unit of the [[symbolic]] [[order]] because it is integrally related with the [[concept ]] of [[structure]].
<blockquote>"The [[notion ]] of structure and that of signifier appear inseparable."<ref>{{S3}} p. 184</ref></blockquote>
The field of the [[signifier]] is the field of the [[Other]], which [[Lacan]] calls "the battery of signifiers."
=====That Which Represents a Subject for Another Signifier=====
[[Lacan]] defines a [[signifier]] as "that which represents a subject for [[another ]] signifier," in opposition to the [[sign]], which "represents something for someone."<ref>{{S11}} p. 207</ref>
To be more precise, one [[signifier]] (called the [[master]] [[signifier]], and written '''[[Image:SS1.gif]]''') represents the [[subject]] for ''all other [[signifier]]s'' (written '''[[Image:SS2.gif]]''').
Although the term "[[signifier]]" is [[absent]] from [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]], [[Lacan]]'s use of the term focuses attention on a recurrent theme in [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|writings]].
[[Freud]]'s examples of [[psychoanalytic]] [[interpretation]]s constantly focus on purely [[formal ]] [[linguistic]] features.
Thus [[Lacan]]'s [[insistence ]] that the [[analyst]] attend to the [[signifier]]s in the [[analysand]]'s [[speech]] is not really an innovation in [[technique]] but an attempt to theorize [[Freud]]'s own method in more rigorous terms.
=====Words and Non-Linguistic Things=====
While it is [[true ]] that when [[Lacan]] talks [[about ]] [[signifiers]] he is often referring to what [[others ]] would call simply "[[word]]s," the two terms are not equivalent.
Not only can units of [[language]] smaller than [[word]]s ([[phoneme|morpheme]]s and [[phoneme]]s) or larger than [[word]]s (phrases and sentences) also function as [[signifier]]s, but so also can [[linguistic|non-linguistic]] things such as [[object]]s, relationships and [[symptom]]atic [[act]]s.<ref>{{S4}} p. 288</ref>
=====Differential Nature of the Signifier=====
The single condition which characterizes something as a [[signifier]], for [[Lacan]], is that it is inscribed in a [[system]] in which it takes on [[value ]] purely by virtue of its [[difference]] from the other elements in the [[system]].
=====Unstable Meaning=====
It is this differential [[nature ]] of the [[signifier]] which means that it can never have a univocal or fixed [[meaning]];<ref>{{S4}} p. 289</ref> on the contrary, its [[meaning]] varies according to the [[position]] which it occupies in the [[structure]].
==See Also==
