This article articulates Ducrot's polyphonic theory of enunciation into a structuralist theory of signifier and, by extension, ideology. It shows that Ducrot's project of conceptualizing enunciation as the (re)production of intersubjective relations rather than as representation, proves to be contradictory there where it should be fulfilled: when analysing ironic negation, Ducrot reintroduces representation precisely by infinitesimally replacing it with supplementary enunciators. This contradiction can be suspended by interpreting ironic negation as an expletive ne that signifies nothing except the subject of enunciation. By focusing on such an empty signifier, enunciation can finally be grasped beyond representation and, moreover, viewed in its institutional and, hence, ideological overdetermination.
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