Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness (literally arbitrariness of Latin arbitrarius arbitrarily ') means the creation or quality of a thing because of arbitrariness or volition instead of natural necessity. In linguistics and semiotics, the term refers to a fundamental property of linguistic signs: The relationship between the signifier (significant, phonology, character shape ) and the signified ( the signified ) is based on human convention and agreement rather than an inherent regularity.
Conceptual history
The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure coined the term arbitrariness in his 1916 posthumously published work basic questions of general linguistics (French original title Cours de linguistique générale ). Saussure refers arbitrariness of the relationship between sound image (image acoustique ) and idea ( concept ) of a linguistic sign. He demonstrates the arbitrariness of this assignment with the fact that the same object the reality of language is named differently to language.
Arbitrariness does not mean that a single speaker select basically free in the construction of linguistic expressions can (except when creating a neologism ). In language acquisition and communication with other people in the speaker experiences the relationship between sign and meaning as a habitual connection. The assignment of terms and meanings is thus governed by the conventions of a language community. Arbitrariness does mean that there is no objective reason why conventional one object or concept a very specific phonology is assigned.
Arbitrariness does not mean that the shape of the signifier is generally not motivated by the signified. Onomatopoeia words ( onomatopoeia ) that mimic a natural sound ( " Cuckoo ", " doodle-doo " ) or grammatical phenomena - as in some languages the plural form by reduplication - rather show that linguistic signs can be at least partially motivated by a similarity relation to the signified. We speak in such cases of "relative motivation of " the character at the same time in principle existing arbitrariness.
The historical background of the term in modern linguistics lies in the philosophy of language conflict between conventionalist and naturalists, as it has shown in its full form Plato in his dialogue Cratylus. Outside the European context, there are similar ideas in the "inner chapters " of the Taoist, Chinese classic Zhuangzi.
During the conventionalism attributes the origin of language on human settlement and agreement, the naturalism of the opinion that the words of the language represented the essence of the matter referred because of a natural affinity between their phonetic form and its meaning. Such affinity is seen not only in obvious onomatopoeia, but there is in the Platonic idea rather an original natural relationship between the individual sounds and thereby designated factual properties, processes and actions (eg, between the vibrating sound " r" and the property "Motion "). This natural relationship between meaningful word formation patterns and meaning transfers wears away in language development and makes it possible to conclude that the essence of the thing signified in the investigation of a word by its sound shape and origin. The approach has proved particularly in the ancient and medieval etymology as extremely fruitful: if, for example, the Latin word " vulpes " ( Fox) will be explained so that the name of this animal had suffered from " Veloces pedes " and so quick on the " feet " of the fox instructions.