语言符号“象似说”和“任意说”的关系刍议

A Brief Analysis on the Relationship between Linguistic Arbitrariness and Iconicity

近年来一些学者从象似性的角度对索绪尔的语言符号任意性提出了“补充和挑战”。任意说存在漏洞,但象似说对任意说的质疑也存在不妥之处,针对狭义任意性的象似性分析对广义的任意性并不构成威胁。任意性是对语言的定性结论,象似性是量的分析,两者实为辩证统一关系。

Recently some scholars have posed challenge and amendment to Saussure's arbitrariness of linguistic arbitrariness from the vantage point of iconicity, but iconicity itself has some defects in questioning the validity of arbitrariness. The iconicity analysis aiming at narrow arbitrariness poses no threat to broad arbitrariness, for arbitrariness is the qualitative conclusion of language, while iconicity is its quantitative analysis, so their relationship is a dialectical and u-nified one.