Example research essay topic: Languages In Which Absence Arbitrary 2 4 Language - 1,391 words

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... them. And he ignores the sentences too, as he thinks sentences are infinite in length and cannot be counted. He divides language in to two sections; la language and la parole. He takes words as the principle of la language, which then turns into linguistic competence with Chomsky. So while saying that arbitrariness is the main principle of language he externalize sentences from la language.

Saussure is less dealt with the syntax. 2. 3. Absolute and Relative Arbitrariness: "The fundamental principle of the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign does not prevent us from distinguishing in any language between what is intrinsically arbitrary -- -that is, unmotivated -- -and what is only relatively arbitrary. Not all signs are absolutely arbitrary. In some cases, there are factors which allow us to recognize different degrees of arbitrariness, although never to discard the notion entirely. The sign may be motivated to a certain extent. " Compound words and derivational words are not absolutely arbitrary. They are relatively arbitrary.

There is a direct relation between their sounds and meanings. With a particular language, signs may be partially motivated in a different way. For example, eighteen is not absolutely arbitrary, but relatively arbitrary. To Saussure, the process of combining eight and teen, to create new motivated signs is similar to the way in which we combine words to form phrases. The meaning of the new phrase is related to the combined meanings of individual words.

Arbitrariness is absolute, and motivation is relative. There are two reasons for these saying. First is that the elements of a motivated sign themselves are arbitrary. The second reason is that the value of the term is never equal to the total of the values of its sections.

There exists no language in which nothing at all is motivated. To conceive of such a language is an impossibility by definition. Languages always exhibit features of both kinds: intrinsically arbitrary and relatively motivated. But its proportion is differs. Absolute arbitrariness and relative arbitrariness are two important characteristics of all languages, according to which, two types of language can be classified in the world. One is lexico-logical languages, in which, absence of motivation reaches a maximum.

Chinese is an example of lexico-logical language. The other is grammatical languages, in which, absence of motivation decreases. Proto-Indo-European and Sanskrit are prototypical examples for that. 2. 4. Non-Arbitrary 2. 4. 1 Onomatopoeic Symbols Onomatopoeia is defined as "in rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates the sound it is describing, and thus suggests its source object, such as 'bang' or 'click', or animal such as 'moo', 'oink', 'quack', or 'meow'" in Wikipedia. Onomatopoeic symbols are those who imitates the sounds of natures. As we generally say they are the natural cries.

The sounds or voices made by the machines, the voices of animals, the sounds in nature; as the sound of river or wind, etc... are onomatopoeic sounds. "Woof-woof - the sound made by dog-, quack (duck), roar (lion), and meow (cat) " are onomatopoeic sounds of animals. Some other examples are: CLICK 'Click the button and take a picture'. CRACKLE 'Listen to the fire crackle in the dark'. RATCHET 'The bar is a ratchet in the machine'. &# 61558; It must be noted that onomatopoeia is an item of vocabulary, not merely a noise such as, for example, a cough. These sounds can differ from language to language.

For example, the sound a dog makes is bow-wow (or woof-woof) in English, was-was in German, our-our in French, gaf-gaf in Russian, hav-hav in Hebrew and Turkish, wan-wan in Japanese, gay-gay in Spanish and hau-hau in Finnish. Although they counted as non-arbitrary signals, Saussure appears to have neglected rigorous linguistic observation because the topic in hand is the language we use in everyday life, a subject which seems so familiar as not to require cautious study. Thus he casually remarks that onomatopoeia is not common and plays a less than central role in linguistic systems. 2. 4. 2. Iconic Symbols "An icon 'represents its object by virtue of a character which it possesses regardless of whether or not the object exists'. Peirce, summarised in Greenlee, 1973: 701 "A sign is said to be iconic when there is a topological similarity between a signifier and its dentate. Sebeok, 1976: 1281 "Icons are 'those whose relation to their objects is a mere community in some quality'.

Peirce, quoted by Sebeok, 1976: 128 " Icons are the visual pictures or symbols which directly gives the meaning of a word. They generally give the same meaning all over the world. The traffic signs, maps, and pictures can be given as examples of icons. Other examples are: Is the iconic version of impaired person. The meaning is same in the world. Is the iconic of the word 'rose'.

This picture gives the same meaning to everyone in every country. It is the iconic symbol of 'man' and again has the same meaning. It is the traffic icon which means turn right. The Chinese logography can be included in this section as they seem iconic and the meaning can be directly understood without knowing the language itself. As we can understand from the examples given in these icons, there are a direct relation between the form and the meaning. One can easily understand what it means, even when s / he is in a foreign country the language of which s / he does not know.

So it is doubtless that they are non-arbitrary. 2. 4. 3. Interjections They are the emotional cries of people. The human beings in the world has the same emotions, pain, surprise, happiness, upset, etc... So logically, the sounds they produce to represent these emotions should be similar.

For example; ouch, ah, of, and so on... The people who believes that the origin of language is these exclamations (bow-wow theory), think that as the language deprived from these interjections, they must be non-arbitrary and has the same meaning in all languages. They are to sum extent right. The interjections or exclamations are non-arbitrary. Their meanings can be understood without the linguistic knowledge of the source language. They are nearly the same in all languages.

However, another point here is that, Saussure, the Swiss linguist of early 1900 's, says that they have a little role in the language and can be omitted when discussing about the feature of arbitrariness. &# 61558; There will be some more non-arbitrary symbols like conventions, pantomimes, and gestures. There are obvious examples of what one would call 'conventions', styles of clothes, cookery recipes, matrimonial systems, methods of composing music, but for these one does not need to look very far to find natural bases or natural constraints on the forms they take. The tomahawk chop used by Atlanta Braves fans, for example, seems to imitate the action of chopping, and thus would be the most "natural" way to designate the idea of chopping. 3. Conclusion To sum, the term arbitrariness, seen as one of the main principles of language is the no natural relation between the linguistic form of a word and the meaning of it.

In the words of Saussure it is the no direct connection between the signifier and the signified. It is the source of the questions like; Why we call a clock as it? Why the words in each language changes? Why cannot we understand all the things in all languages when seeing or hearing the symbols -words? However, although Saussure do not accept there are some exceptions which lead a new controversy among the scholars. What are they?

They are the onomatopoeic sounds, which are the imitations of nature; they are the iconic sounds, which are the visual pictures of a word or a term; they are the interjections, which are the emotional cries of nature; they are the conventions, which are the agreement methods used between a group of people; they are the gestures we use nearly always when talking even in telephone conversations, which are the body movements; they are the pantomimes, and so on. We can include sign languages to the non-arbitrary category as they consists of different symbols which generally can be understood by the people who do not know the system of communication used... 2. 755 words...

Research essay sample on Languages In Which Absence Arbitrary 2 4 Language