The signified does stabilize with habit, as the signifier cues thoughts and images.
A signifier, an element of language, is a material reprentation of a linguistic sign. In psychoanalysis, it is a phonemic quence of the discour that intervenes in conscious and unconscious process to determine the subject engaged in the discour. A signified is the idea or concept associated with a signifier, which together constitute the linguistic sign.
The elements, which come from stylinFerdinand de Saussure's linguistic theory, were introduced and problematized in the field of bee cockpsychoanalysisjonathan kite by Jacques Lacan during his "return to Freud" pha in early 1950s. Lacan relied on the following main points of Saussure's structural model. The linguistic sign, which belongs to language, establishes a relationship between an acoustic wave form, or signifier, and a concept, or signified (Figure 1).
4.2 the Structural approach
The STRUCTURAL approach to the analysis of language was started by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in the beginning of the twentieth century. In a n, all the Linguistic theories after him are structural in that they all regard linguistic units as interrelated with each other in a structure (or system), not as isolated bits. Un this ction, however, we shall only discuss one of Saussure's main ideas and the American structuralist model of ntence analysis. Two of the other important theories will be prented in the later ctions.
4.2.1 Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
In saussure's view , the language is a system of signs , each of which consists of two parts: SIGNIFIED ( concept ) and SIGNIFIER (sound image). And the relationship between the two parts is arbitrary. Therefore the linguistic cannot attempt to explain individual signs in a piecemeal fashion. Instead he must try to find the value of a sign from its relations to others its position in the system.
The two principal types of relations which Sauusure identified are SYNTAGMATIC and P
ARADIGMATIC relations. The former is a relation between one item and others in a quence, or between elements which are all prent , ikasuch as the relation between weather and the others in the following ntences.
e.x. 4-1
nsitivityIf the weather is nice, we will go out.
There are syntactic and mantic conditions the words in a syntagmatic relation must meet . For example, e.x. 4-2a below is an acceptable ntence, but B) and C) are not.
e.x. 4-2
a. The boy kicked the ball. flagyl
netappb. *Boy the ball kicked the.
c. *The ball kicked the boy.
The words in (b) are arranged in a way which violates syntactic rules. First, the countable noun boy cannot occur without a determiner before it. Second, the words in boy the or boy the ball are not in any grammatical relations with each other. They are neither in subordination like boys there or in coordination like boys and girls. Lastly, the is an article and cannot function as the object of kicked. And in (c), the ball is inanimate while the verb kick requires an animate subject.
The order of words is also influenced by mantic considerations. Whether (a) or (b) in ex. 4 -3 will be ud depends on the meaning.
i swearEx.4-3
(a) The boy chad the dog.
(b) The dog chad the boy.
The PARADIGMATIC relation , Saussure originally called ASSOCIATIVE, is a relation holding between elements replaceable with each other at a particular place in a str
ucture, or between one element prent and the others abnt. For example, in the context The _______ is smiling, there are constrains on the possible elements occurring here. As is obvious, verbs definitely cannot be ud in this place. The most likely candidate is a noun. But there are also strict constrains on the possible type of nun occurring here. First, it must be an animate noun, nouns like book, desk are not possible choices. Second, even within the type of animate nouns, only tho which have a mantic component of human are most naturally ud with the verb smile. Trees, cats only smile in children's stories. Thirdly, the noun must be in the singular to occur with is smiling, so nouns like boys, men are excluded. In other words, only singular human nouns like boy, girl, man, woman, student are capable of occurring in this con text. And the words are said to be in a paradigmatic relation here. They can substitute for each other without violating syntactic rules.
