试论语言符号是从任意到象似的连续统一体

语言符号的任意性问题,一直都是语言学界争论的焦点,尤其自索绪尔提出语言符号的任意性原则以来,国内外的一些语言学家先后对此提出了或支持或反对的意见。在综合了各方面的观点,并对语言符号的特性进行重新界定之后,认为语言符号既存在任意性,又具有象似性。从辩证角度分析,语言符号不过是从任意到象似的连续统一体。

Continuum of Linguistic Signs from Arbitrariness to Iconicity

Whether linguistic signs are arbitrary or not has been an ever-discussed and controversial issue in the linguistic circle.Since Saussure proposed the first principle of arbitrariness of linguistic signs,many linguists expressed successively their agreement or disagreement both abroad and at home.After taking views from all sides into account,the article redefined the characteristic of linguistic signs,holding that there exist both arbitrariness and iconicity.At last,it discussed the correlation between arbitrariness and motivation and further elucidated that there is a continuum from iconicity to arbitariness in the language system from the dialectic point of view.