signifier

birthday

Jacques Lacan

semiotics

signified

signifier - signified

is a creature that can exist only insofar as it can be cloned, but its genome cannot be fixed by any positive units, it can be fixed only by a web of differences, through differential oppositions a strange identity that possesses no identity of its own, only a crossing of differences.

the signifier is a creature that can exist only insofar as it can be cloned, but its genome cannot be fixed by any positive units, it can be fixed only by a web of differences, through differential opositions, which enable it to produce meaning. It is a strange entity that possesses no identity of its own, for it is merely a bundle, a crossing of differences in relation to other signifiers, and nothing else. (Dolar 2006 : 17)

is a sign that does not refer to anything, although it shares with the trace absence as its fundamental features.

But the signifier is a sign that doesn't refer to any object, not even to one in the form of a trace, even though the trace nevertheless heralds the signifier's essential feature. It, too, is the sign of an absence. But insofar as it forms part of language, the signifier is a sign which refers to another sign, which is as such structured to signify the absence of another sign, in other words, to be opposed to it in a couple' (Seminar III, p.167).

is a sound-image, a word, while the signified is a concept, for example 'the concept 'tree'.

sound-mage, a word, for example (arbor, etc.'while the signified is a concept, for example 'the concept, tree'' (Saussure 1959: 67), and in his diagram of the sign, he puts the si

 represents a subject for another signifier whereas the sign is something that represents something for somebody.

For the definition of a signifier is that it represents a subject not for another subject but for another signifier. This is the only definition possible of the signifier as different from the sign. The sign is something that represents something for somebody, but the signifier is something that represents a subject for another signifier. (lacan 1970 pdf.)

is the 'sensible' side of the sign, the carrier of sense (saussure specifies that it is the 'acoustic image' of a sound, for instance, and not the sound itself), while the signified is the mental construct or concept corresponding to a given signifier.

Saussure further defines langue as a system of signs, in which the sign itself is decomposable into two halves, the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the 'sensible' side of the sign, the carrier of sense (Saussure specifies that it is the 'acoustic image' of a sound, for instance, and not the sound itself), while the signified is the mental construct or concept corresponding to a given signifier. (Johnson in Simmons 'kant to levi-strauss' :232)

is the actual image, word, or sound itself.

Barthes, the signifier (the actual image, word, or sound itself) along with the meaning that it imparts (the 'signified') create the 'sign.

is the material part of a sign that stands for the signified.

Signifier: The material part of a sign that stands for the signified.

is not just a word but anything that can be interpreted, such as traffic lights, arrows gestures — pointing, shaking hands; yawns, gasps, and screams.

Q. Why use the jargon term ‘signifier’? Why not just say ‘word’? A. Because words are not the only signifiers. Traffic lights, arrows, and zebra pedestrian crossings signify. So do gestures: pointing, shaking hands, punching the'air. Yawns, gasps, and screams are all signifiers - in the sense that they may be interpreted by those around us, even if we didn’t intend them to be. Paintings signify. Sometimes a group of words constitutes one signifier: ‘How are you?’ is not most usefully broken down into its component words; rather, it represents a single greeting, registers an interest - and probably doesn’t in practice invite a list of symptoms, except in the doctor’s surgery.

signifier, n.All

signifier