Sausssurean revolution is defined by, among others, his controversial hypothesis of linguistic arbitrariness. This, however, fails to embrace a unanimous acceptation by scholars thereafter and the debates over linguis...Sausssurean revolution is defined by, among others, his controversial hypothesis of linguistic arbitrariness. This, however, fails to embrace a unanimous acceptation by scholars thereafter and the debates over linguistic signs in terms of arbitrariness and motivation, due to the regrettably understood terms, have imbued the development of linguistics, nurturing a myriad of sustainably productive branches in linguistic studies. Based on refreshing interpretation of the key terms, the paper adopts an integrative and dialectical approach to linguistic signs and argues that arbitrariness is more a matter of degree than one of presence or absence, hopefully to bring home that duality as whole features linguistic signs fundamentally.展开更多
文摘Sausssurean revolution is defined by, among others, his controversial hypothesis of linguistic arbitrariness. This, however, fails to embrace a unanimous acceptation by scholars thereafter and the debates over linguistic signs in terms of arbitrariness and motivation, due to the regrettably understood terms, have imbued the development of linguistics, nurturing a myriad of sustainably productive branches in linguistic studies. Based on refreshing interpretation of the key terms, the paper adopts an integrative and dialectical approach to linguistic signs and argues that arbitrariness is more a matter of degree than one of presence or absence, hopefully to bring home that duality as whole features linguistic signs fundamentally.