语言符号任意性原则:八十年纷争之解析

Deconstructing the Debates on the Arbitrariness Principle of Linguistic Signs

费尔迪南·德·索绪尔的《普通语言学教程》于1916年在日内瓦出版以后,就不断有学者对其语言学思想进行讨论,其中,围绕"语言符号任意性原则"展开的论争尤其引人注目,文献众多、视角不同、褒贬不一。本文在梳理各方观点的基础上,对论争的缘由进行解析,认为原著中的失误和解读的偏误等影响了人们对语言符号性质的进一步认识,导致"任意性原则"之争。在普遍抽象的语言层面,语言符号的根本属性是任意性;在具体的言语层面,语言符号具有非任意性的从属属性。索氏语言符号的根本属性是任意性,而并非任意性与象似性并行不悖、互为补充。

After the publication of Saussaure＇s Course in General Linguistics in 1916 in Geneva,more and more scholars have been devoting themselves to the discussion of the book and Saussure＇s linguistic propositions. Among the lengthy discussions, ＂the Arbitrariness Principle of Linguistic Signs＂ has notably become a hot topic which prompts vigorous debates. The present paper,based on reviewing the propositions by scholars from different linguistic schools,analyzes and deconstructs the debates holding that mistakes in the originnal works and misinterpretation on the part of readers affect the fight interpretation of the arbitrariness of linguistic signs and cause the debates. Finally,the author of the paper proposes that, at the level of langue, the linguistic sign owns arbitrariness--the fundamental nature, while at the level of parole,the linguistic sign exhibits no subordinate nature. The fundamental nature of Saussure＇s linguistic sign is arbitrariness, not the combination or complementarism of arbitrariness and iconicity