语言符号任意性与象似性之我见

My View on Arbitrariness and Iconicity of Linguistic Sign

与其把语言符号看作纯心理的"能指"与"所指"的结合体,不如把它看作有物质外壳的"能指"。而"所指"则可能是纯心理的思想感受,也可能是客观事物,是被人为地和"能指"联系起来的。意义是语言符号外在的东西,并非符号固有的,需要人们反复建立条件反射,才能确定下来的。语言符号是具有物质外壳的"音",是"义"的载体。这种"音"、"义"最初的结合绝不是任意的,而是象似的,只是这种象似性在各种语言之间具有很强的偶然性。随着象似性的被遗忘,偶然性被夸大成了任意性。

Linguistic sign should be considered as ＂signifier＂ with material shell,rather than a purely psychological entity combined with ＂signifier＂ and ＂signified＂.＂Signified＂ can be psychological ideas or feeling,or objective things.Meaning is something external,not intrinsic,to linguistic sign.The connection between meaning and linguistic sign is based on repeated conditioned reflex.Linguistic sign is the ＂sound＂ with material shell,serving as the carrier of ＂meaning＂.The original connection between ＂sound＂ and ＂meaning＂ can not at all be arbitrary,but it was iconic.This iconicity shows great contingency among different languages.As this iconicity dies out,the contingency is exaggerated as arbitrariness.