Review of the studies on arbitrariness and motivation of linguistic signs  

作　　者：WU Hui-qin 

机构地区：[1]Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo 315100, China

出　　处：《US-China Foreign Language》2007年第5期11-16,共6页美中外语（英文版）

摘　　要：This study reviews the arguments over the arbitrariness and the motivation of linguistic signs. As to whether linguistic signs are arbitrary or motivated, opinions vary from scholar to scholar, which can be concluded as follows： the either-arbitrary-or-motivated viewpoint, the some-arbitrary-while-others-motivated viewpoint, and the both-arbitrary-and-motivated viewpoint. By reviewing the arguments, we find that some support Saussure＇s principle of arbitrariness, some question it, and some even oppose it. Till now there is no final solution to the arguments. But we find that the arguments themselves help clarify, enrich, develop, and even perfect Saussure＇s theories. The transition from the belief that arbitrariness occupies a dominant position to the questioning of the principle of arbitrariness, and then to the different viewpoints against arbitrariness, and still then to supplementing and developing the principles of arbitrariness and motivation, indicates there exists a cognitive route in the study of arbitrariness and motivation of linguistic signs, along which more and more academic findings might be achieved in linguistics.

关 键 词：linguistic signs ARBITRARINESS MOTIVATION COGNITION 

分 类 号：H31[语言文字—英语] H0-05