Page 63 - Studio International - July August 1975

street is demolished, then rebuilt, we say mistakenly identify with the sign; for whatsoever, visual or verbal, the notion of
that it is the same street even though, in a example, the printed words on this page, `true signified' must yield to Derrida's
material sense, perhaps nothing of the or the physical sounds when they are dfférance or Peirce's `unlimited semiosis'.
old one remains. Why can a street be read aloud. The signified is the sense The alternative is a metaphysics of
completely rebuilt and still be the same ? with which the reader invests these interpretation through which an attempt
Because it does not constitute a purely graphic or phonic configurations (in is made to reconstitute the missing
material entity; it is based on certain Saussure's terms the 'concepts' he `presence' which is felt to be the source
conditions that are distinct from the associates with them). The signis of a singular and true content of the
materials that fit the conditions, eg its therefore . . the union of a signifier and empirically given form of the text. All
location with respect to other streets. a signified (in the fashion of the recto too obviously such a metaphysics
Similarly, what makes the express is its and verso of a sheet of paper)'. 2 0 provides the framework of most
hour of departure, its route, and in The image of a coin may help clarify photographic criticism with its
general every circumstance that sets it Saussure's notion of the sign. A penny preoccupation with intentions (the
apart from other trains. Whenever the has a 'head' and a 'tails' side, yet we `committed photographer' . . . etc.).
same conditions are fulfilled, the same would not say that the penny is either one Jonathan Culler has remarked that
entities are obtained. Still, the entities or the other. The penny is the within such a framework 'Notions of
are not abstract since we cannot simultaneous presence of the two. truth and reality are based on a longing
conceive of a street or a train outside its Similarly the sign is the simultaneous for an unfallen world in which there
material realization.'' Or again, the presence of signifier and signified. would be no need for the mediating
shape of the letter u as it recurs in a The major disadvantage of Saussure's systems of language and perception but
handwritten manuscript may vary notion of the sign is that it presents a everything would be itself, with no gap
considerably: what is important is that misleading picture of language as a set of between form and meaning'." It is this
variation is confined within certain coded one-to-one correspondences; logocentric longing which is expressed
bounds so that it is not, for example, each signifier appearing, as it were, with in the 'window-on-the-world' realism of
confused with the letters a or y. The u a signified engraved on its reverse. This the great majority of writers on
is a form determined only in its functional may be the case with road-signs but not photography.
oppositions to other forms within the with language, which is not passively
alphabetic system. decoded but creatively interpreted. Syntagm and system
Saussure illustrates the principle of In a radical critique of such a notion of In discourse : . . words acquire
synchrony by analogy with a game of the sign, Derrida has identified a relations based on the linear nature of
chess. A game may have been in progress `metaphysics of presence' throughout language because they are chained
for a number of days; but when it comes Western thought bound particularly to together. This rules out the possibility
to describing the state of play the the notion of the primacy of oral speech of pronouncing two elements
spectator who has watched every move over writing. He quotes Aristotle : simultaneously . . . Combinations
has no advantage over the person who `Sounds emitted by the voice are supported by linearity are syntagms'.24
looks at the board for the first time. symbols of states of the soul, and written Opposed to the plane of syntagms is
We do not need to know the history of words the symbols of words emitted by what Saussure called the plane of
the moves to describe the state of play the voice', and he observes that here, `associations'. Outside discourse:
at any given moment. (Saussure refers . the voice, producer of prime . . words acquire relations of a
therefore to an 'état de gangue' .) Or, to symbols, has an essential and immediate different kind. Those that have
take an example from photography, the relation with the soul. Producer of the something in common are associated in
fact that the 'soft-focus' style of first signifier, it is not a simple signifier the memory, resulting in groups marked
photography originated as a response amongst others. It signifies the 'state of by diverse relations'.
to purely technical exigencies is the soul' which itself reflects or reflects In modern linguistics, Saussure's
irrelevant to a description of its present upon things by means of natural plane of associations is referred to as the
signification. likeness. Between existence and the plane of the 'system' or 'paradigm'. A
A theory of 'photographic competence' soul, between things and affections, there particular linguistic unit is said to enter
would restrict its attention to a would be a relation of translation or of into syntagmatic relations with all the
synchronically given 'state' of natural signification; between the soul other units with which it is actually
photography. A given individual 'image' and the logos, a relation of conventional associated in a spoken or written chain.
would be of interest only to the extent symbolization'." Thus oral speech It is said to enter into paradigmatic
that it provided evidence of the (logos) is in a privileged proximity to the relations with all the other units which
underlying interplay of forms of which subject, to the communicative might potentially replace it at its
the image is a contingent substantial presence which is the sole authoritative particular position in that chain.
realization. The parameters of these source of the meaning of the Thus: . . by virtue of its potentiality
forms would be differentially determined communication. Writing, on the other of occurrence in the context '-et the
in their mutual oppositions within a hand, Derrida observes, was condemned expression element jb' stands in
system. The purpose of the theory would by Plato precisely because it severs the paradigmatic relationship with /p/,/s/,
be to identify those systems of communication from the communicator, etc; and in syntagmatic relationship with
regularities which allow the production the source of its veracity. The written /e/, /t/'. Moreover, these relations
of meanings through photography. text, particularly the literary text, is the obtain at every level of linguistic
occasion for a play of interpretations, description, so: . . by virtue of its
Signifier and signified a play of differences between elements, potentiality of occurrence in such
In Saussurian terminology, the in which 'the meaning' is constantly contexts as a . . . of milk, the word pint
signifier and the signified (signifié, deferred. This simultaneity of contracts paradigmatic relations with
signifiant) are the two components of the differing and deferring Derrida indicates such other words as bottle, cup, gallon,
sign. The notion of the sign is of in the term dfférance. etc., and syntagmatic relations with a,
fundamental importance to linguistics As Derrida himself observes, 'Peirce of, and milk'."
and is also notoriously difficult to define; goes very far in the direction which we Syntagm and system are, therefore, the
however, it may initially be described as : have called . . . the de-construction of the two 'axes' of language. The plane of the
. . an entity which I) can become transcendental signified . . . the so-called syntagm is that of addition, of the
sensible, and 2) for a given group of `thing itself' is always already a combination of linguistic elements. The
users, marks an absence in itself'." The representamen abstracted from the plane of the system is that of
part of the sign which can become simplicity of what is intuitively obvious. substitution.
sensible is, in Saussure, the signifier. The representamen functions only in In a celebrated study of aphasia
The `absent' part is the signified. The giving rise to an interpretant which itself Jakobsen has shown that although the
relation which joins them is that of becomes sign and so on to infinity. The language deficiencies of aphasia have an
signification. identity itself of the signified is concealed anatomical cause (lesions at the cerebral
The signifier is that substantial entity and displaced ad infinitum'." centre for the affected linguistic function),
which the unreflecting person may Thus, presented with any text these deficiencies may be subjected to a
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