Practice question · Multiple choice
Saussure claims the linguistic sign is arbitrary, yet insists that no individual speaker can alter a word's meaning at will. Why is this apparent contradiction essential to how language functions?
Hints
- Does 'unmotivated by resemblance' mean that usage is left up to individual whim?
- Who or what maintains the stable link between a signifier and a signified at any given moment?
Show the answer
A. Social convention fixes the unmotivated link so communication remains stable.
Why
Confusing arbitrariness with personal licence misses that the sign is a collective contract. Etymology and physical resemblance do not govern synchrony; mutual agreement across the speech community is what prevents infinite individual variation from destroying shared meaning.
Practise The Sign, the Code and the Six Functions
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More questions on The Sign, the Code and the Six Functions
- Match each factor of communication to the function it supports.
- For Saussure, a word's meaning is fixed by what it is not, as much as by what it is.
- Complete the Saussurean vocabulary.
- Peirce divides signs by their relation to what they stand for. How many kinds does his trichotomy contain?
- Why does Saussure insist a speaker uses the system without knowing its history?