Waving a red rag in front of a bull, for example, is like a code for it to attack – the red has a fixed meaning and the bull does not interpret it in any other, more ‘poetic’ way. It is a complete equivalence of thing and meaning that allows for no ambiguity. The sign is the equivalent to the code in the animal kingdom.In this passage Lacan wants to make clear the difference between a sign, a trace and a signifier. 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). 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. When have we passed over into the order of the signifier? The signifier may extend over many of the elements within the domain of the sign.
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