signifier & signified

Jacques Lacan, The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, 1957. (influence from Ferdinand de Saussure)

What are signs?

Meaning of the Letter

signifier → signified;

signifier → new signified (the meaning given by society may change) (the signifier represses the signified)

Why do we use them?

The Signifying Chain

word → sentence → paragraph → context

語(yǔ)言作為一種被不同主體共享的存在，我能夠?qū)⑵溆糜诒硎九c其字面意義截然不同的東西。這種言說(shuō)功能可以指示主體在尋求真理的過(guò)程中的位置。

How do they come into being?

Metonymy 轉(zhuǎn)喻: 一詞替換另一詞，所指不變。

e.g. 30 sails = 30 ships

displacement 置換 (feelings/behavior from original objects ---transfer to--- another person/thing)

Metaphor 隱喻: 一詞替換另一詞，與主體無(wú)直接聯(lián)系。

e.g. His sheaf was neither miserly nor hateful. → "sheaf"=the hero Booz, "his"=possession, implying Capitalist Competition; it tries to lose the negative aspects of Booz by replacing him by "his sheaf".

condensation 凝縮 (the repressed returns in a hidden way)

the symptom (對(duì)積極的渴望)

conclusion

Linguistic & Unconscious

Lacan: "The unconscious is structured like a language."

free association 自由聯(lián)想

It is not that our desires are expressed through language, but the language creates the desires...It is language that enabled us to become conscious.