Abstract

According to Saussure the sign, as has been repeated many times, is an entity with two faces, meaning and signifier. This is well known, and apparently taken for granted. However, the famous scheme of the Cours on language as a «system of pure values» in respect to the «shapeless and indistinct mass» of both expression (sound) and content (thought), in reality presents us with a different situation: in this famous scheme, which should be primarily understood as a model of language learning, at the beginning there is not an already formed (two-sided) sign, but only a signifier. The first step of language ontogeny is placed at the signifier level, and the meaning comes later (if it ever arrives). But this is precisely Lacan’s famous thesis, which privileges the signifier (signifiant) over the signified (signifié). The paper discusses such a closeness between Lacan and Saussure, which is much stronger than is commonly admitted, highlighting some of its unexpected cognitive consequences.