英：punctuation; 法：punctuation
给一个能指链条 (SIGNIFYING CHAIN)打上标点，便会产生意义。在标点之前，有的只不过是一个话语链条而已，正是倾听者/接收者标点了这一话语，从而回溯性地裁定了所说话语的特殊意义。对于能指链条的标点，会创造出某种固定意义的幻象：“标点一旦插入，便会把意义固定下来。”（E, 99: 见：[[point de capiton 结扣点]] )这在交流 (COMMUNICATION)的结构中是本质性的，其中“发送者从接收者那里收到他自己的信息”，这一点也在欲望图解 (GRAPH OF DESIRE)的“基本单位”(elementarycell)中得到了阐明。
标点的运作可以通过参照对精神分析而言具有根本重要性的两种情境来予以说明，即母亲与孩子的关系，以及分析者与分析家之间的关系。在第一种情境下，尚未获得言语的婴儿只能以一种非常原始的要求 (DEMAND), 即通过啼哭，来表达自己的需要。我们无法确切地知道啼哭是在表达饥饿、疼痛、疲倦、恐惧还是别的东西，不过母亲会以一种特殊的方式来对其加以解释，从而回溯性地决定了它的意义。
标点是分析家在干预时所可能采取的形式之一，通过以某种出乎意料的方式来标点分析者的话语，分析家便能够回溯性更改分析者言语的预定意义：“改变标点即更新或者打乱了”由分析者归于其自身言语的固定意义 (E, 99)。此种标点是“向主体表明他说出的意思比他自己想到的还要多”的一种方式 (S1,54)。分析家可以仅仅通过把分析者言语的一部分给他重复回去来标点分析者的话语（也许是用一种不同的语调或者是以一种不同的语境）。例如，如果分析者说出“u es ma mere”(“你是我的母亲”)，分析家便可以用“uer ma mere”(“杀死我的母亲”)来重复此语，以这样一种方式而带出这一措辞的同音异义表达 (E, 269)。作为一种选择，分析家也可以通过一个沉默的时刻，或是通过打断分析者，或是通过在一个恰当的时刻上结束会谈来标点分析者的言语（见：E, 44).
纵观拉康派精神分析的整个历史，这最后一种形式的标点自始至终都是一个争论的来源，因为它违背了国际精神分析协会在传统上有关固定时长会谈的实践。拉康的弹性时间会谈 (法：seances scandees; 英：sessions of variable duration: 或译为“可变时长会谈”一被他的批评者们错误地冠以“短时会谈”[shot sessions]之名)在1960年代早期法国精神分析学会为获得国际精神分析协会的承认而进行谈判的时候，便成了国际精神分析协会所给出的开除拉康的主要原因之一。如今，标点的技术，尤其是在弹性时间会谈中表现出来的做法，仍然是拉康派精神分析的一项区分性特征。
(ponctuation) To punctuate a SIGNIFYING CHAIN is to produce meaning. Beforepunctuation, there is simply a chain of discourse; it is the listener/receiver who punctuatesthis discourse and thereby sanctions retroactively one particular meaning of an utterance. The punctuation of the signifying chain is that which creates the illusion of a fixedmeaning: 'the punctuation, once inserted, fixes the meaning' (E, 99; see POINT DECAPITON). This is essential in the structure of COMMUNICATION, where 'the senderreceives his own message from the receiver', and is illustrated in the 'elementary cell'ofthe GRAPH OF DESIRE.
The operation of punctuation may be illustrated by reference to two situations whichare of fundamental importance to psychoanalysis: the mother-child relation, and therelation between analysand and analyst. In the first of these situations, the baby who hasnot yet acquired speech can only articulate his needs in a very primitive kind ofDEMAND, namely by screaming. There is no way of knowing for sure whether a screamarticulates hunger, pain, tiredness, fear, or something else, and yet the mother interprets itin one particular way, thus determining its meaning retroactively.
Punctuation is one of the forms which the intervention of the analyst may take; bypunctuating the analysand's discourse in an unexpected way, the analyst can retroactivelyalter the intended meaning of the analysand's speech: changing the punctuation renewsor upsets'the fixed meaning that the analysand had attributed to his own speech (E, 99). Such punctuation is a way of 'showing the subject that he is saying more than he thinkshe is' (S1,54). The analyst can punctuate the analysand's discourse simply by repeatingpart of the analysand's speech back to him (perhaps with a different intonation or in adifferent context). For example, if the analysand says tu es ma mere ('you are mymother'), the analyst may repeat it in such a way as to bring out the homophony of thisphrase with tuer ma mere ('to kill my mother')(E, 269). Altematively, the analyst canalso punctuate the analysand's speech by a moment of silence, or by interrupting theanalysand, or by terminating the session at an opportune moment (see E, 44).
This last form of punctuation has been a source of controversy throughout the historyof Lacanian psychoanalysis, since it contravenes the traditional IPA practice of sessionsof fixed duration. Lacan's practice of sessions of variable duration (Fr. Seances scandees-wrongly dubbed 'short sessions'by his critics)came to be one of the mainreasons that the IPA gave for excluding him when the SFP was negotiating for IPArecognition in the early 1960s.Today,the technique of punctuation,especially asexpressed in the practice of sessions of variable duration,continues to be a distinctivefeature of Lacanian psychoanalysis.