Obstruent Obstruent An obstruent is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by "obstructing" airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include both vowels and consonants. Obstruents are subdivided into plosives (oral stops), such as , with complete occlusion of the vocal tract, often followed by a release burst; fricatives, such as , with limited closure, not stopping airflow but making it turbulent; and affricates, which begin with complete occlusion but then release into a fricative-like release, such as . Obstruents are prototypically voiceless, but
The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, or Reason Since Freud The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, or Reason Since Freud "The Instance of the Letter in the Unconscious, or Reason Since Freud" () is an essay by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, originally delivered as a talk on May 9, 1957 and later published in Lacan's 1966 book "Écrits". Lacan begins the essay by declaring it to be "situated halfway" between speech and writing. By doing so, he foreshadows both the essay's notorious opacity and its theme: the relationship between speech and language and the place of the subject in relation to both. The paper represents a key moment