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==Jacques Lacan==
The term "[[chain]]" is used increasingly by [[Lacan]] from the mid-1950s on, always in references to the [[symbolic order]].
At first, in 1956, he speaks not of the [[signifying chain]] but of the ''[[symbolic]]'' [[chain]], by which he denotes a line of descendence into which each [[subject]] is inscribed even before his before and after his death, and which influences his destiny [[unconscious|unconsciously]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.468</ref>
In the same year he speaks of "the chain of discourse."<ref>{{S3}} p.261</ref>
It is in 1957 that [[Lacan]] introduces the term "[[signifying chain]]" to refer to a series of [[signifiers]] which are linked together.
A [[signifying chain]] can never be [[lack|complete]], since it is always possible to add another [[signifier]] to it, ''ad infinitum'', in a way which expresses the ternal nature of [[desire]]; for this reason, [[desire]] is [[metonymy|metonymic]].
[[Lacan]] speaks of the [[signifying chain]] in linear [[metaphor]]s and circular [[metaphor]]s.
On the one hand, the idea of linearity suggests that the [[signifying chain]] is the stream of [[speech]], in which [[signifier]]s are combined in accordance with the laws of grammar -- which [[Saussure]] calls "[[syntagmatic]]" relationships, and [[Lacan]], following [[Jakobson]], locates on the [[metonymic]] axis of [[language]].
On the other hand, the idea of circularity suggests that the [[signifying chain]] is a series of [[signifier]]s linked by [[free association]]s, just one path through the network of [[signifiers]] which constitutes the [[symbolic]] [[world]] of the [[subject]] -- which [[Saussure]] calls "associative" relationships, and [[Lacan]], following [[Jakobson]], locates on the [[metaphoric]] axis of [[language]].
In truth, the [[signifying chain]] is both of these things.
The two cross over:
<blockquote>"There is in effect no signifying chain [diachronic chain] that does not have, as if attached to the punctuation of each of its units, a whole articulation of relevant contexts [synchronic units] suspended 'vertically', as it were, from that point."<ref>{{E}} p.154</ref></blockquote>
[[Lacan]] thus combines in one concept the two types of relationship ("[[syntagmatic]]" and "associative") which [[Saussure]] argued existed between [[sign]]s, though for [[Lacan]], the relationship is between [[signifiers]], not [[sign]]s.
== See Also=={{See}}* [[DiachronyDesire]]
* [[Language]]
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* [[Metaphor]]
* [[Metonymy]]
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* [[Sign]]
* [[Signification]]
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* [[Signifier]]
* [[Symbolic order]]
== References ==
