Abstract:
Saussure’s principle of arbitrariness is not theorizable for he believes that the connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. As the pillarstone of Saussure’s structuralism, this principle meant a challenge to historical and comparative linguistics and neo-grammar. It was just this challenge that started a dispute among linguists, both at home and abroad, over the subject of language and the view of langauge. In present days, it is of importance to sciences of human society to develop a proper understanding of the dispute over the principle of arbitrariness of symbols by combing out those misunderstandings of this principle so as to further explore this principle from different philosophic perspectives.
