Properties of Linguistic Sign

Ferdinand De Saussure distinguished 4 properties of linguistic sign. Two central are called arbitrariness and linearity.
- The arbitrariness – no motivation for the phonetic constitution of a sign is to be founding the thing for which it is a sign. There is no direct connection between the shape and the concept. For example there is no reason why the letters 'c', 'a', 't' or the sound of these phonemes produce exactly the image of the small, domesticated animal with fur, four legs and a tail in our minds. It is a result of conversion: speakers of the same language group have agreed and learnt that these letters or sounds evoke a certain image. This is true only in simple sign. In syntagmes (complex or compound words, syntactic construction) there is a relative motivation for example inflected forms are similarly constructed to signal the same meaning relations, syntactic constructions used in similar situations are similarly constructed.
- The linearity is seen in the significant which can be segmented into parts succeeding each other in time. The linearity is the entire basis of linguistic mechanism and the criterion by which language can be distinguished from other sign systems.
There are two more properties. Linguistic signs are both immutable (not able or likely to change [that we can still understand old movies or books, some things don't change) and mutable (able to change, even in our life time linguistic sign like komorka, mouse can change its concept)
- The basic reason for the immutability is the fact that each generation inherits its language and the signs that constitute it and both the community and individual are passive in receiving them. This indicates that the conventional nature of language is of a particular type and the notion that there is an explicit contract about meanings among speakers is quite misguided.
Four reasons for the immutability of linguistic sign:
1. Signs are arbitrary, any sign is as good as another
2. while people might prefer to change an arbitrary writing system, because the elements are limited in number and could become an object of criticism, the signs of language are infinite and this infinity seters linguistic change
3. language is an extremely complex system of which only a handful of experts are aware
4. language is the only social systems that all people use, and this fact helps to account for the conservatism of speakers concerning the alteration of their linguistic habits.
- The mutability of linguistic signs is an obvious fact of history. Language is mutable; view of a history which brings about shifts in relation of signifiant and signifie as a consequence of sound change and analogical shifts. From the view point of contemporary speaker [ mouse- used to refer to a little rodent, now the word has acquired new concept ' a computer mouse'] all the reasons for language not changing are visible. For the sake of science the fiction of stable language is necessary.
2 exceptions of arbitrariness;
* onomatopoeic expressions 'kuku'
* interjections 'ouch!'
[Linearity-words follow words, sentences follow sentences, no overlapping.
Mutability- merry/gay/cheerful: used to mean 'happy' now each word bears different meanings.]