Saussure depicts a “sign” by the following image which shows that the signifier “tree” is assigned to its signified tree (Source: “The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious” by Jacques Lacan):

Lacan calls this depiction “faulty” and “erroneous”. He asserts the primacy of the signifier (which introduces difference) by offering the following picture instead:

Signifier pairs like “Gentlemen – Ladies” function like symbolic scissors. They make sense by cutting through nonsense. I call this a meta non-language.

In this post, I summarize the meta non-language that I produced in Žižekian Analysis by listing the signifier pairs that I dealt with.

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Big Other – Other of the Other

Nature – God

Castration – Jouissance

Exigency – Enjoyment

Master-Signifier – Object a

Symbolic Suture – Real Suture

Authorization – Embodiment

Will – System

Desire – Malfunction

Class – Cluster

Alienation – Separation

Symbolic Lack – Real Lack

Symbolic Authorization – Real Authorization

Imaginary Embodiment – Real Embodiment

Disembodied Authority (God) – Unauthorized Body (Monster)

Fetish – Symptom

Fetishistic “Conception” – Symptomatic Conception

Symbolic Mourning – Real Mourning

Decryption – Decipherment

Useful – Useless

Energy – Entropy

Spatial – Combinatorial

Labor-Power – Engaged Labor-Power (Effort)

Symbolic Engagement – Real Engagement

Symbolic Valuation – Real Valuation

Denial of Denial – Negation of Negation

True – False

Desire – Enjoyment

Proof – Evidence

Masculine – Feminine

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Işık Barış Fidaner is a computer scientist with a PhD from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. Admin of Yersiz Şeyler, Editor of Žižekian Analysis, Curator of Görce Writings. Twitter: @BarisFidaner