语言的象似性问题:外界的质疑与自身的应答

Iconicity of Language: Answers to Questions from the Outside

语言是任意的还是象似的,这是一个关系语言的本质的问题,两种学说的论争古来有之.本文从象似说的角度应答了外界对象似说的质疑,认为语言符号是一个任意性与象似性的辩证统一体.

Whether language is arbitrary or iconic is a question concerning the nature of language. Argument between the hypothesis of arbitrariness and that of iconicity finds its way back to the ancient times. Taking the position of the hypothesis of iconicity, the present paper makes an attempt to provide answers to questions presented to the theory from the outside, and concludes that language is a dialectical unity of both arbitrariness and iconicity.