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[[Language]] is a central concept in [[Lacanian psychoanalysis]].
It is usually regarded as its most distinctive feature.
==Language as a Structure==
[[Jacques Lacan]] is concerned with the general [[structure]] of [[language]] (the [[system]] of [[language]] in general) (''[[langage]]''), (rather than the differences between particular [[language]]s (''[[langue]]s'')).
==Development in Lacan's Thought==
Four broad phases can be discerned in the long process of [[development]] in [[Lacan]]'s thinking on the nature of [[language]].
===ONE===
[[Lacan]] argues that [[language]] is constitutive of the [[psychoanalytic experience]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.82</ref>
[[Language]], understood in terms derived from [[Hegel]] rather than [[linguistic theory]], is a mediating element which permits the [[subject]] to attain recognition from the [[other]].
[[Language]] is first and foremost an appeal to an interlocutor.
==Language and Structure==
[[Lacan]]'s discussion of [[language]] contains references to [[Heideggerian]] [[phenomenology]] and to the [[anthropology]] of [[language]] ([[Mauss]], [[Malinowski]] and [[Levi-Strauss]]).
[[Language]] is seen as [[structuring]] the [[social]] [[law]]s of [[exchange]], as a [[symbolic]] [[pact]], etc.
In his famous [[Rome Discourse]] [[Lacan]] posits a basic opposition between ''[[parole]]'' and ''[[langage]]''. (see [[speech]])
[[Lacan]] refers to [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Roman Jakobson]].
Following [[Sassure]], [[Lacan]] argues that [[language]] is a structure composed of differential elements.
[[Language]] becomes for [[Lacan]] the single paradigm of all [[structure]].
===Lacan and Language===
[[Lacan]] proceeds to critcize the [[Saussure]]an concept of [[language]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the basic unit of [[language]] is not the [[sign]] but the [[signifier]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[unconscious]] is, like [[language]], a [[structure]] of [[signifier]]s.
[[Lacan]] asserts that "[[the unconscious is structured like a language]]."<ref>{{S11}} p.20</ref>
[[Lacan]] can formulate the category of the [[symbolic]] with greater precision.
In 1969 [[Lacan]] develops a concept of [[discourse]] as a kind of [[social bond]].
===''Lalangue''===
[[Lacan]] coins the term ''[[lalangue]]'' to refer to non-communicative aspects of [[language]] which, by playing on ambiguity and homophony, give rise to a kind of''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{S20}} p.126</ref>
All [[human]] [[communication]] is inscribed in a [[linguistic]] [[structure]].
The whole [[aim]] of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is to articulate the [[truth]] of one's [[desire]] in [[speech]] rather than in any other medium.
The [[fundamental rule]] of [[psychoanalysis]] is based on the principle that [[speech]] is the only way to this [[truth]].
[[Speech]] is the only tool which the [[analyst]] has.
Any [[analyst]] who does not [[understand]] the way [[speech]] and [[language]] work does not [[understand]] [[psychoanalysis]].
==Quotes==
<blockquote>Properly speaking this is a redundancy because "[[structured]]" and "as a [[language]]" for me mean exactly the same thing. [[Structure]]d means my [[speech]], my [[:category:terms|lexicon]], etc., which is exactly the same as a [[language]]. And that is not all. Which [[language]]? Rather than myself it was my pupils that took a great deal of trouble to give that question a different [[meaning]], and to search for the formula of a reduced [[language]]. What are the minimum conditions, they ask themselves, necessary to constitute a [[language]]? Perhaps only four <i>signantes</i>, four [[signify]]ing elements are enough. It is a curious exercise which is based on a complete error, as I hope to show you on the board in a moment. There were also some [[philosophers]], not many really but some, of those present at my [[seminar]] in Paris who have found since then that it was not a question of an "under" [[language]] or of "another" [[language]], not [[myth]] for instance or [[phoneme]]s, but [[language]]. It is extraordinary the pains that all took to change the place of the question. [[Myth]]s, for instance, do not take place in our consideration precisely because those are also [[structure]]d as a [[language]], and when I say "as a [[language]]" it is not as some special sort of [[language]], for example, [[mathematical]] [[language]], [[semiotical]] [[language]], or [[cinematographical]] [[language]]. [[Language]] is [[language]] and there is only one sort of [[languag]]e: [[concrete]] [[language]] — [[English]] or [[French]] for instance — that people talk. The first thing to start in this context is that there is no [[meta-language]]. For it is necessary that all so called [[meta-language]]s be presented to you with [[language]]. You cannot teach a course in [[mathematic]]s using only [[[letter]]s on the board. It is always necessary to speak an ordinary [[language]] that is understood. <ref>Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever</ref></blockquote>
==See Also==
* [[Structure]]
* [[Linguistics]]
* [[Sign]]
* [[Signifier]]
* [[Signified]]
* [[Letter]]
* [[Word]]
==References==
<references/>
# Language: 12, 24-5, 33, 44-5, 71, 83, 118, 119, as system, 38, 40 (35, 37)
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Language]]
It is usually regarded as its most distinctive feature.
==Language as a Structure==
[[Jacques Lacan]] is concerned with the general [[structure]] of [[language]] (the [[system]] of [[language]] in general) (''[[langage]]''), (rather than the differences between particular [[language]]s (''[[langue]]s'')).
==Development in Lacan's Thought==
Four broad phases can be discerned in the long process of [[development]] in [[Lacan]]'s thinking on the nature of [[language]].
===ONE===
[[Lacan]] argues that [[language]] is constitutive of the [[psychoanalytic experience]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.82</ref>
[[Language]], understood in terms derived from [[Hegel]] rather than [[linguistic theory]], is a mediating element which permits the [[subject]] to attain recognition from the [[other]].
[[Language]] is first and foremost an appeal to an interlocutor.
==Language and Structure==
[[Lacan]]'s discussion of [[language]] contains references to [[Heideggerian]] [[phenomenology]] and to the [[anthropology]] of [[language]] ([[Mauss]], [[Malinowski]] and [[Levi-Strauss]]).
[[Language]] is seen as [[structuring]] the [[social]] [[law]]s of [[exchange]], as a [[symbolic]] [[pact]], etc.
In his famous [[Rome Discourse]] [[Lacan]] posits a basic opposition between ''[[parole]]'' and ''[[langage]]''. (see [[speech]])
[[Lacan]] refers to [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Roman Jakobson]].
Following [[Sassure]], [[Lacan]] argues that [[language]] is a structure composed of differential elements.
[[Language]] becomes for [[Lacan]] the single paradigm of all [[structure]].
===Lacan and Language===
[[Lacan]] proceeds to critcize the [[Saussure]]an concept of [[language]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the basic unit of [[language]] is not the [[sign]] but the [[signifier]].
[[Lacan]] argues that the [[unconscious]] is, like [[language]], a [[structure]] of [[signifier]]s.
[[Lacan]] asserts that "[[the unconscious is structured like a language]]."<ref>{{S11}} p.20</ref>
[[Lacan]] can formulate the category of the [[symbolic]] with greater precision.
In 1969 [[Lacan]] develops a concept of [[discourse]] as a kind of [[social bond]].
===''Lalangue''===
[[Lacan]] coins the term ''[[lalangue]]'' to refer to non-communicative aspects of [[language]] which, by playing on ambiguity and homophony, give rise to a kind of''[[jouissance]]''.<ref>{{S20}} p.126</ref>
All [[human]] [[communication]] is inscribed in a [[linguistic]] [[structure]].
The whole [[aim]] of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is to articulate the [[truth]] of one's [[desire]] in [[speech]] rather than in any other medium.
The [[fundamental rule]] of [[psychoanalysis]] is based on the principle that [[speech]] is the only way to this [[truth]].
[[Speech]] is the only tool which the [[analyst]] has.
Any [[analyst]] who does not [[understand]] the way [[speech]] and [[language]] work does not [[understand]] [[psychoanalysis]].
==Quotes==
<blockquote>Properly speaking this is a redundancy because "[[structured]]" and "as a [[language]]" for me mean exactly the same thing. [[Structure]]d means my [[speech]], my [[:category:terms|lexicon]], etc., which is exactly the same as a [[language]]. And that is not all. Which [[language]]? Rather than myself it was my pupils that took a great deal of trouble to give that question a different [[meaning]], and to search for the formula of a reduced [[language]]. What are the minimum conditions, they ask themselves, necessary to constitute a [[language]]? Perhaps only four <i>signantes</i>, four [[signify]]ing elements are enough. It is a curious exercise which is based on a complete error, as I hope to show you on the board in a moment. There were also some [[philosophers]], not many really but some, of those present at my [[seminar]] in Paris who have found since then that it was not a question of an "under" [[language]] or of "another" [[language]], not [[myth]] for instance or [[phoneme]]s, but [[language]]. It is extraordinary the pains that all took to change the place of the question. [[Myth]]s, for instance, do not take place in our consideration precisely because those are also [[structure]]d as a [[language]], and when I say "as a [[language]]" it is not as some special sort of [[language]], for example, [[mathematical]] [[language]], [[semiotical]] [[language]], or [[cinematographical]] [[language]]. [[Language]] is [[language]] and there is only one sort of [[languag]]e: [[concrete]] [[language]] — [[English]] or [[French]] for instance — that people talk. The first thing to start in this context is that there is no [[meta-language]]. For it is necessary that all so called [[meta-language]]s be presented to you with [[language]]. You cannot teach a course in [[mathematic]]s using only [[[letter]]s on the board. It is always necessary to speak an ordinary [[language]] that is understood. <ref>Of Structure as an Inmixing of an Otherness Prerequisite to Any Subject Whatever</ref></blockquote>
==See Also==
* [[Structure]]
* [[Linguistics]]
* [[Sign]]
* [[Signifier]]
* [[Signified]]
* [[Letter]]
* [[Word]]
==References==
<references/>
# Language: 12, 24-5, 33, 44-5, 71, 83, 118, 119, as system, 38, 40 (35, 37)
[[Category:Terms]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Symbolic]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
[[Category:Language]]
