An important part of Ferdinand de Saussure's linguist theory in "Course
in General Linguistics" is what he terms "The arbitrary nature of the
Sign". Following his discussion about the nature of the linguistic sign de
Saussure argues that the relations between the absolute majority of signifies
to signified is arbitrary. With the small exception of onomatopoeia (words
that sound like what they refer to) There is no imperative connection between
words and their meanings. This can be easily proved through the fact that
different languages have different words to refer to the same things.
The arbitrary nature of the sign or the arbitrariness of the sign doesn't mean that it is false or that
you can just use any word you want to refer to whatever you want. What is does
mean is that language is a self contained structure built on inner relations
between words as opposed to external relations between words and things. One interesting
implication of the arbitrary nature of the sign is that language is not built
to meet a preexisting reality, but rather the other way around.
See also: De Saussure's nature of the linguistic sign, Langue and parole, Paradigm and syntagm
Ferdinand de Saussure and structuralism.
Ferdinand de Saussure and structuralism.
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