When
discussing the nature of the linguist sign de Saussure criticizes the notion
that things precede words. When relating to the lingual sign what de Saussure
essentially does is to replace actual referential reality with the signified.
What the signifier points to is not something which exists outside of language,
but rather to a meaning which is contained within human consciousness. The
division between signifier and signified, which together compose Saussure's
lingual sign, is the basis for his subsequent proposition that everything gains
it meaning out of being in structural oppositional relations with other
components.
When
discussing the nature of the linguist sign de Saussure makes his famous
statement about to lingual sign being arbitrary. The arbitrariness of the lingual sing is easily demonstrated by pointing to the fact that different
languages have different signs for the same denotations. But this points to
another matter. Were words representations of preexisting concepts all
languages will have parallel words. But we do know that different languages
cover the world of meaning with differently divided semantic networks. This
means that language does not simply describe reality, but is in fact something
separate and autonomous from it. When de Saussure says that the lingual sign is
arbitrary he means it not it the sense that anyone can make up words, quite the
opposite, signs according to Saussure are all conventions that are socially
constructed. The linguistic sign, in other words, is arbitrary but is not open
for free choice; its meaning is imposed on us by our linguistic
surrounding.
De
Saussure's ideas regarding the nature of the linguistic signs were of huge
influence in the 20th century and were the corner stone of both structuralism and semiotics. Saussure's revolution is in making language
relational into itself, it is not fixed nor predetermined, and it was now up to
philosophy, sociology, linguistics and other adjacent fields to examine the
manner in which a signifier is tied to a signified.
See also:
Langue and Parole
See also:
Langue and Parole
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