NATURE OF THE LINGUISTIC SIGN

-Ferdinand de Saussure

The Sign is Arbitrary

•The link between signal and signification is arbitrary .

•For example : there is no inner connection between the idea sister and the sound s-o-r which serves as signal in French.

•Two objections raised are :Onomatopoeic words prove that the

choice of the signal is not always arbitrary. But Saussure encounters that they are never organic elements.

NATURE OF LINGUISTIC SIGN•Sign , Signification and Signal•Two fundamental characteristics of

linguistic sign:The Sign is ArbitraryLinear Character of the signal.

Sign , Signification and Signal

•A linguistic unit is dual in nature.•A verbal sign have two sides : the sound

image and the concept.•A linguistic sign is a link between a

concept and a sound pattern.•Saussure replace concept by signification

and sound pattern by signal .•Sign = signification (signified) + signal

(signifier)

Interjections may also be sited to question.

There is no fixed link between exclamatory signal and its signification.

Example: the English equivalent of French “aie” is “ouch”.

INTRODUCTION

•Saussure is a key figure in the development of modern approaches to language study .

•Most important feature of his work is theory of sign.

•Literature may be understood as a parts of a system of signs.

•Saussure study language as a synchronic system rather than a diachronic phenomenon.

•Saussure coined the term langue and parole .

Linear Character of the Signal

•The linguistic signal being auditory in nature has a temporal aspects .

•This occupies a space and is measured in a line.

•The whole mechanism of linguistic structure depends upon it .

•Auditory signals have at their command only the linearity of time.

•A spatial line of graphic sign is substituted for a succession of sounds in time.

•The linear nature of the signal is not obvious.

•The syllable and its stress constitute only one phonetically act .

•There is no duality within this act.

Bibliography

•Ferdinand de Saussure, Cours de Linguistiue generale (Geneva,1916), ed.Charles Bally and Albert Secherhaye in collaboration with Albert Reindlinger; ed. And trans.as course in General Linguistics by Wade Baskin (London : Peter Owen, 1959), p.9

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PREPARED BY , RASEENA MOL P.A