Making do with structure

Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan

...or how to cope with the precedence of language

When psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan noted that it is not so much a matter of there being language to cover all the objetcs in the world as it is a question of a language that suffices to satisfy our needs .. did he not foreshadow an approach to language learning that emphasises skills acquisition organised around specific contexts of practice – so that when we learn how to speak in situations related to travel, we acquire language oriented towards coping with such situations– ?

Posted 27 Mar, 2014. Modified 21 Apr, 2026.
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About Torgeir Fjeld
Torgeir Fjeld is a writer, publisher, and educational administrator, holding PhDs in Philosophy (EGS, 2017) and Cultural Theory (Roehampton, 2012). His publications include Introducing Ereignis: Philosophy, Technology, Way of Life (2022) and Rock Philosophy (2019), with articles in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, International Journal of Žižek Studies, and elsewhere. He serves as Head of Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts, Publisher at Tankebanen forlag, and Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Inscriptions, and has taught at universities across North America, Europe, and Africa. Torgeir Fjeld‘s latest talk was “Snow blind: on inoperativity and desolation in Askildsen, Fosse, and Naess” at 50 years of Scandinavian studies in Gdańsk, University of Gdańsk, Poland in November 2025. Here is section dedicated to poetry in translation. This page has a cookie policy.
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