This annotated commentary delineating Michel Pêcheux’s materialist discourse theory anticipates the formation of a real social science to supersede the metaphysical meanings ‘always-already-there’ instituted by empirical ideology. Structures of Language presents Pêcheux’s consequential work in respect of Ferdinand de Saussure’s epistemological breakthrough that founded the science of linguistics: the theoretical separation of sound from meaning. Noam Chomsky’s generative grammar, John Searle’s philosophy of language, B. F. Skinner’s indwelling agents, J. L. Austin’s speech situations, Jacques Lacan’s symbolic order, and other influential linguistic researchers, are cited to explain imaginary semantic systems. The broader implications for structural metaphysics in language use are tacitly conveyed.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Michel Pêcheux (1938–1983) Semantic scientificity – linguistic phenomena – domain of linguistics – sentence formation – epistemological obstacles – everyday language – ideological phenomena – realization of the real – self-evident meaning – social science – non-subjective theory of subjectivity – semantic self-evidence – syntactic recognition – philosophical hermeneutics – scientific practice – co-reference 2 Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) Theoretical ideologies – Saussure’s rupture – speech sounds – linguistic co-ordination – social psychology – language and speech – ideological mis/recognition – institutional discourse – discourse analysis – contextual cues – base/superstructure – value and meaning – acceptability – imaginary associations – Althusserian principles – scientific history – analogy 3 Noam Chomsky (1928–) Problem of meaning – linguistic idealism – generative grammar – competence and performance – sentential transformations – universal grammar – Port-Royal logic – propaganda model of meaning – linguistic value – pre-Saussurian ideology – state discourse – Saussurian double structure – transcoding – formatives – state apparatus – dogma of meaning 4 John Searle (1932–) Philosophy of language – spontaneous ideology – reading codes – contextual rules – ideology of context – illocutionary acts – context-utterance relation – expressibility – brute/institutional facts – intentionality – social reality – performative utterances – the Background – speaker position – structural elements – social commitment – tied information. 5 B.F. Skinner (1904–1990)  S-O-R model – illusion of spontaneous subjectivity – indwelling agents – Munchausen effect – introspection – verbal behavior – operant conditioning – discursive contingencies – colloquial communication – verbal faculty – social control – forms of reinforcement – inner man – technology of behavior – autonomous subjection – subject of speech 6 J.L. Austin (1911–1960)  Subjective self-evidence – predictable speech – speech situations – conventional mis/recognition – verbal contexts – performative assumptions – meaningless speech – ideologies of agency – responsible subject – plea for excuses – imaginary associations – ideology of ordinary language – institutionalized speech acts – rituals of performativity – performative success – ideological speech activity 7 Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) Mental automatism – repetition automatism – letter of meaning – automatic ideation – discursive automatism – subject of enunciation – site of speech – ideological automaticity – symbolic order – derealization – transference – structures of identification – psychogenic interpretations – the echo – ideo-verbal subjection – symbolic agencies 8 Roland Barthes (1915–1980) Pre-Saussurian regression – mythical systems – discursive discrepancies – mythemes – meaning and myth – muthos – novel mythology – accepted stories – politics and myth – noble lie – rhetoric – mythological beliefs – personal agency – mythological freedom – rhetoric of freedom – myths of subjectivity – rhetorical practice – meaningful narratives 9 Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Philosophy as ideology – meaningless nonsense – propositional logic – Saussurian principles – useless signs – ideological practice – everyday language – non-subjective theory of language – mechanical protocols – misunderstood meaning – unconscious subjection – meaning as use – socially accepted signs – ideological problems – language games – linguistic behavior 10 Zellig Harris (1909–1992)   Non-subjective theory of language – meaning as frequency – institutional ideologies – ideology of meaning – distribution – recurring sequences – normative social conditions – architecture of meaning – social sub-systems – distributed meaning effects – forms of language – ideological basis of ordinary language – language and situation 11 Roman Jakobson (1909–1992)   Meaningful ideology – sound and meaning – phonemes – semantic effects – code recognition – double structure – Saussure’s break – shifters – subject positions – imaginary representation – discourse structure – subject as shifter – preconstructed social relations – self-subjection – ordinary language – literal subjection – literary discourses 12 Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)   Semantic deconstruction – Saussurian break – illusory forms of control – metaphysics of meaning – ideology and belief – ideological superstructure – phonocentric discourse – subjective interiority – textual transparency – meaning and soliloquy – symbolic linearity – psychographism – repression – ideological structure of subjectivity – logic of the supplement 13 Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975)   Author function – individualistic subjectivism – normative inculcation – transverse discourse – semantic and metonymic dominance – identificatory obviousness – official/unofficial ideology – illusion of subjectivity – social psychology – hierarchies of discourse – addressivity and answerability – relative autonomy of meaning – social science as ideology 14 Jürgen Habermas (1929–)   Universal pragmatics – observation and understanding – critical theory of subjection – background consensus – normative structures – subject positions – spirit of capitalism – socially situated speech – legitimate rule – ideological subjection – non-coercive coercion – liberal state – state apparatus – legitimation problem – psychoanalysis and self-reflection – unconscious ideology – consensus and meaning 15 Émile Benveniste (1902–1976)  Self-generating subjectivity – materialist theory of discourse – symbolic interaction – linguistic immediacy – ideological conditions of enunciation – individual agency – psychological subjectivity – structures of verbal interaction – non-subjective theory of language – epistemological rupture – social domination – state authority – symbolic control – institutional materiality – subjectivity and speech 16 Michel Foucault (1926–1984)  Discourse analysis – non-subjective theory of subjectivity – discursive formations – language and ideology – linguistic base – disciplines – archaeology of knowledge – modern soul – objective conditions of discursive practice – institutional materiality – accepted forms of subjection – ideology of freedom – writing systems – epistemic panopticon – disciplinary norms – Munchausen effect Conclusion References Index