语言符号"任意性"与 "象似性"辨证

"任意性"作为语言符号的本质特征,随着认知科学的发展引发了诸多研究者的质疑,有学者主张用"象似性"取代"任意性"。"象似性"作为认知语言学的核心概念,长期以来一直被认为是索绪尔结构语言学中对"任意性"原则的反动。"象似性"对理解人类认知本质有重要推动作用,与之相关的隐喻研究经历了从修辞手段到人类认知工具的发展。认知科学的发展催化了象似性与隐喻研究的融合,尤其是在分析书面语篇中两者可以体现出极其强大的解释力和创造力。混合模型将隐喻与象似性结合起来,提供了分析语篇的一种新范式。尽管这种认知语篇分析法揭示了书面语篇的高度象似性,可是它依然不能推翻索绪尔有关语言符号任意性特征的论断。"象似性"不能取代"任意性",从事认知科学研究的学者存在对索绪尔语言哲学思想的误读和片面解读。语言符号的任意性有相对任意性和绝对任意性之分,两极之间存在一个连续体,二者并非二分对立。"象似性"早已包含在索绪尔的"相对任意性"之中,它不可能作为索绪尔语言哲学思想的对立面而存在。

A View of Iconicity from Saussure's Perspective of Arbitrariness

This paper clarifies the relationship between arbitrariness and iconicity from the perspective of Saussure's general linguistics so as to eliminate some scholars' misunderstanding of Saussure's idea about language.First,it traces the origin of the study about iconicity,reviews the research about it and elucidates its definition.Second,it introduces the study about the relationship between metaphor and iconicity,summarizes the general views of metaphor and iconicity and highlights its contributions and initiation.Finally,it refutes Hiraga's view about language and points out that there's a continuum between absolute and relative arbitrariness,that they are not binary,and that iconicity has already been included within relative arbitrariness and it does not contradict arbitrariness according to Saussure's view of language.