What makes language arbitrary

The symbols of a code signifier shares an inherent relationship with that which the symbols represent signified. Language is arbitrary, so language is not a code. Phonics is a method of teaching reading that correlates sounds to graphemes. Phonics fails because not all graphemes spell sounds. Some graphemes can spell the zero phone. Graphemes cannot cross morphemic boundaries.

Language is arbitrary, but language is also rule-governed. In English grammar, a determiner such as the precedes a nominal form such as cat and dog.

An auxiliary verb such as has likewise precedes a main verb such as bitten. Language is conventional. The conventionality of language refers to language rules being established by accepted usage.

In English, determiners precede nominal forms and auxiliary verbs precede main verbs. But there is no inherent reason for either grammar rule, or any grammar rule. A determiner could follow a nominal form. Furthermore, a language does not even have to have the distinct category of determiner.

Language is rule-governed, but the rules are also arbitrary. The formation of words in a given language is also rule-based but arbitrary. Knowing bases and affixes allows me to figure out the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of words. Rules for word formation also help me learn and even create new words. But the bases, affixes, and word formation rules are all arbitrary. Otherwise, all languages would use the same forms to perform the same functions.

Language conventions can also change. Nouns in Modern German express grammatical number, gender, and case. A noun is singular or plural. A noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter. A noun is also nominative, accusative, dative, or genitive.

Nouns in Modern English express only number and possessive. A noun is non-possessive or possessive. The abstract system which is language can also be realized as writing. However, although speech and writing have much in common, they are not to be equated or hierarchically ordered.

The diagram indicates that, although speech and writing are in theory distinct, they can and do influence each other. A simple example of this is that pronunciation is often affected by spelling. The main differences between speech and writing: Speech: Writing: Composed of sounds.

Make use of intonation, pitch, Makes use of punctuation and other rhythm, tempo, graphological devices like italics, boldfaces, underlines, and so on. Relatively permanent, Perceived by the ear, Perceived by the eye.

Addressee present, Addressee absent. Immediately feedback. Feedback delayed. Meaning helped by context, body Meaning must be made clear within the movement, gestures context. Not spontaneous. Directly Associative Indirectly Associative. Interpreter Mode comes to iOS and Android, making it easier to converse somewhat seamlessly across language barriers. Spain participates in 52nd Cairo International Book Fair. Home Home. A language is arbitrary. The word bike is signifier sound pattern and the concept of bike a mechanical thing use for transportation is signified.

Thus we can understand that the arbitrariness of sign is not only the different speech community but also in the same speech community. The word of God is signifier sound Pattern and the concept of god in our mind is signified but the concept of God is change in different religion.

For example the word God use in Muslim community the concept of prayer of five times, mosque, etc. In Hindu community God word refer to minder, Pooja etc. In the last we see that the arbitrary nature of sign in a language in ourselves and the world around us. Arbitrary is not only one language to another but also within the same language.

While examining the way of the language specialist sign Saussure reprimands the idea that things go before words. At the point when identifying with the lingual sign what Saussure basically does is to supplant real referential reality with the connoted. What the signifier focuses to is not something which exists outside of language, yet rather to a significance which is contained inside of human cognizance.

The division in the middle of signifier and meant, which together make Saussure's lingual sign, is the premise for his consequent suggestion that everything picks up its importance out of being in basic oppositional relations with different segments. Arbitrariness is in no way unique to human language: it is typical of animal signaling systems and of virtually every conceivable system of communication.

Duan, Manfu On the Arbitrary Nature of Linguistic Sign. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. K A Khawaja Abdullah Author.