Interpretation of Arbitrariness of the Linguistic Sign from the Perspective of Language Production Model

Abstract Saussure (1980) gave an incisive exposition on the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign in Course in General Linguistics. During the recent years, however, many scholars have aired challenging viewpoints concerning the principle of arbitrariness from the perspective of motivation or iconicity and have even made attempts to negate the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. Taking the basic concepts of sign, signifier, signified, etc. as the point of departure, the present study clarifies what Saussure means by arbitrariness, analyses the relationship between arbitrariness and value system, expatiates the distinction between absolute arbitrariness and relative arbitrariness, and constructs a model of language production in order to expound and further confirm arbitrariness, the principle of the linguistic sign.