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Abstract: The making of any language is a number of signs. Saussure put language as a system of signs which is one of his linguistic theories. Concerning natures of sign, Saussure proposed the two important natures: the arbitrary and linear nature. After that follows the immutability and mutability of language. However, the later are often neglected. In this paper, attention will be focused on the relative elements from both the linguistic and social perspectives that affect the mutability and immutability of the sign.
Key words: language; signs; arbitrary; immutability; mutability
1. Immutability of the Sign
By saying the immutability of the sign, Saussure means that the signifier is not arbitrary with respect to the linguistic community that uses it. When a certain object has a signifier, it is accepted by members of the speech community and can’t be modified by any individual. There are several reasons to support the argument.
1.1Arbitrary Nature of the Sign
According to Saussure, the linguistic sign is arbitrary. This means that the link between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. Words are connected to their meanings merely in an arbitrary way. There is no intrinsic link between the sound and the concept, or between the signifier and the signified. It is the arbitrary nature of the sign that prevents us from controlling and modifying the language when the speech community has accepted the sign. We can’t argue that cup is better than beizi in Chinese or in some other languages to express the concept of it as a container. Once the sign is accepted by the speech community, it is unnecessary to make changes.
Historical transmission of language excludes any possibility of sudden or general change, because generations always overlap, and because of the amount of imitative effort involved in mastering our mother tongue (Saussure 1916:106). In the long run, it takes continuous and collective efforts of people of all ages to make changes. So once a certain system of the sign is formed, it is stable and immune from alteration. But time also insures the continuity of language. The sign is also exposed to alteration because it tends to continue with the continuity of time. The immutability and mutability of the sign is just relative.
1.2 Multiplicity of Signs Needed for Language
The making of any language is a number of signs. Furthermore, the inventory of signs is not completed in one day. It was handed down from generation to generation. It is even harder to imagine if Chinese language is changed, how long it will take for people to create signs enough to communicate. Will people understand each other with new signs? That a certain language remains static is based on its stable system of writing and laws in its construction of signs. 1.3 The Complex Character of the System
Each language is a system. It is not entirely arbitrary. The signifier and the signified are arbitrary. But when it comes to sentences and speech, each language has its own laws to regulate the usage of it. So when we learn a new language, we do not only learn its signs but also its grammar and appropriate usage on different occasions. For this reason, the speech community is not free to change the system at will. Second language learners should have such a feeling and know the anxiety to communicate with people in another unfamiliar language especially when they are at the preliminary level with little knowledge of the language system. According to Saussure, ‘any change would require the intervention of specialists, grammarians, logicians, and others. But history shows that interference by experts is of no avail in linguistic matters’.
1.4 The Community’s Refusal of Linguistic Innovations
Language is a product of social activity. One person alone cannot create a language. We use different words to convey different meanings, because we inherit them from our ancestors. And they are well accepted by all people who use it every day. It is unlike other social institutions. Saussure gives us the explanation that a language is something, in which everyone participates all the time, and it is constantly open to the influence of all. As for a language, even if some individuals want to change it, it is impossible, because it belongs to the whole speech community. On the one hand, ‘arbitrary convention allows free choice’, and on the other hand, the ‘passage of time fixes that choice’. ‘It is because the linguistic sign is arbitrary that it knows no other law than that of tradition and because it is founded upon tradition that it can be arbitrary’ (Harris 1983:74).
2. Mutability of the Sign
Language signs are immutable; however, to some extent they are mutable as well. Mutability is based on the principle of immutability. Signs are within time and time in turn guarantees the continuity of signs. Signs are also in change. The change occurs to the signify and signifier. Before a sign comes into being, the combination of its concept and sound image is arbitrary and mutable. Once it is put into use and experiences certain time, it has the nature of immutability.
2.1 Language is a Product of Both Social Force and Time.
‘A language is situated socially and chronologically by reference to a certain community and a certain period of time’ (Harris 1983:76). Due to the arbitrary nature of the sign, no one can change it freely. But on the other hand, language is unable to resist the influence of all factors which tend to shift the relationships between the signified and the signifier. ‘Evolution is inevitable: there is no known example of a language immune from it. After a certain time, changes can always be seen to have taken place’ (Harris, 1983:76). Just as one of the statements of Carle Marx’s philosophy, movement is the essence of the material world. Nothing is unchangeable in a relative sense. 2.2 Language Changes in Social Activities.
Saussure compares language to the chess game. No matter what color the chesses are and what kinds of materials they are made of, players just follow the rules to play. If people want to change the rules, they need to reach an agreement. However, language is not like that. It is shifting continually with the passage of time and changes happen without a specific agreement. Changes just take place naturally and people sometimes accept them even without awareness. ‘A gradual transformation may occur, introducing new words by applying some current frame. There are many ways in which a language slowly changes. This feature is linked to the fact that no language, whatsoever, can exist except by being constantly transmitted, and this depends very much on its social character’ (Sanders 2004:98). Without speech community and their social activities and interrelations, language wouldn’t exist. Time alone can only guarantee the continuity of language rather than the mutability of it. Under the umbrella of the social nature, influences affecting the language vary from political and cultural events to the growth of science and even wars. Language is actually a mirror of progress. For example, the development of atomic energy and nuclear weapons has brought about words like chain reaction, hydrogen bomb, fallout and radioactive etc. With the exploration of space, we have words like astronaut and cosmonaut and some compounds like spacecraft, space shuttle, launch pad, and countdown etc.
However, if a language were observed only in terms of social forces without taking time into account, the effect of social forces to language would not be observed. Therefore, Saussure has deduced that the reality of a language can’t be fully understood unless both time and social nature are taken into account. As soon as we put the two elements together, ‘the language is not free, because time will permit the social forces working upon it to develop their effects, and we arrive at the principle of continuity, which annuls freedom’ (Saussure 1916:113).
2.3 Language Changes with the Passage of Time.
Time changes the relationship between the signifier and the signified and therefore the sign. As for English, it is spoken as a mother tongue by 400 million people and a second language for others in many countries. Many different national and regional varieties of English have developed. Some words get new concept like mouse originally denoting ‘a small mammal with short fur, a pointed face and a long tail’. Its meaning shifts with the development of technology referring to ‘a small device which movse a cursor on your computer screen’. Therefore, as time goes by, both the signifier and the signified change. In addition to it, the sound and spelling of words also change. These external elements greatly influence language. However, Saussure emphasizes that the source of language changes lies in language itself, and the continuity of time. According to him Mutability is inevitable and this is true even of an artificial language like Esperanto. It is under control only if it is not in use. Once it is in circulation and becomes the public property and everyone begins to use it, the control disappears. Therefore, Saussure says that ‘anyone who thinks he can construct a language not subject to change, which posterity must accept as it is, would be like a hen hatching a duck’s egg. The language he created would be subject to the same forces of change as any other language, regardless of its creator’s wishes’ (Harris 1983:76). Evolution is irresistible, so it is with the change of language. People rarely speak a certain language while considering how the language comes into being and how it changes. They just pay attention to the existing language being used. However, tracing back the origin of a certain language to its present state, we can not neglect its mutability in the long time river. 3. Conclusion
Relatively speaking, everything is changeable and unchangeable. Mutability and immutability take account of the passage of time that leads to two different approaches of language study, which is synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Since language is immutable, the existing and being-used language in a certain period of time by community can be studied. The passage of time brings about mutability of language so that language can also be studied in terms of its history. Saussure could hardly have imagined that his concept of the linguistic sign and nature of the sign would have given rise to so many intense arguments and further subsequent studies.
Bibliography:
Harris, R.. F. de Saussure. Course in General Linguistics. Gerald Duchworth& Co.Ltd 1983.
Sanders, C.. The Cambridge Companion to Saussure , Cambridge University Press. 2004.
Saussure.F. de.. Cours de Linguistique Generale.1916.
刘润清，封宗信. 语言学理论与流派[M].南京：南京师范大学出版社, 2002
作者简介
汪霞，1981-3-8生，女，汉族，吉林省长春市人，吉林财经大学公共外语部，讲师，硕士， 英语语言学及应用语言学。
Key words: language; signs; arbitrary; immutability; mutability
1. Immutability of the Sign
By saying the immutability of the sign, Saussure means that the signifier is not arbitrary with respect to the linguistic community that uses it. When a certain object has a signifier, it is accepted by members of the speech community and can’t be modified by any individual. There are several reasons to support the argument.
1.1Arbitrary Nature of the Sign
According to Saussure, the linguistic sign is arbitrary. This means that the link between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary. Words are connected to their meanings merely in an arbitrary way. There is no intrinsic link between the sound and the concept, or between the signifier and the signified. It is the arbitrary nature of the sign that prevents us from controlling and modifying the language when the speech community has accepted the sign. We can’t argue that cup is better than beizi in Chinese or in some other languages to express the concept of it as a container. Once the sign is accepted by the speech community, it is unnecessary to make changes.
Historical transmission of language excludes any possibility of sudden or general change, because generations always overlap, and because of the amount of imitative effort involved in mastering our mother tongue (Saussure 1916:106). In the long run, it takes continuous and collective efforts of people of all ages to make changes. So once a certain system of the sign is formed, it is stable and immune from alteration. But time also insures the continuity of language. The sign is also exposed to alteration because it tends to continue with the continuity of time. The immutability and mutability of the sign is just relative.
1.2 Multiplicity of Signs Needed for Language
The making of any language is a number of signs. Furthermore, the inventory of signs is not completed in one day. It was handed down from generation to generation. It is even harder to imagine if Chinese language is changed, how long it will take for people to create signs enough to communicate. Will people understand each other with new signs? That a certain language remains static is based on its stable system of writing and laws in its construction of signs. 1.3 The Complex Character of the System
Each language is a system. It is not entirely arbitrary. The signifier and the signified are arbitrary. But when it comes to sentences and speech, each language has its own laws to regulate the usage of it. So when we learn a new language, we do not only learn its signs but also its grammar and appropriate usage on different occasions. For this reason, the speech community is not free to change the system at will. Second language learners should have such a feeling and know the anxiety to communicate with people in another unfamiliar language especially when they are at the preliminary level with little knowledge of the language system. According to Saussure, ‘any change would require the intervention of specialists, grammarians, logicians, and others. But history shows that interference by experts is of no avail in linguistic matters’.
1.4 The Community’s Refusal of Linguistic Innovations
Language is a product of social activity. One person alone cannot create a language. We use different words to convey different meanings, because we inherit them from our ancestors. And they are well accepted by all people who use it every day. It is unlike other social institutions. Saussure gives us the explanation that a language is something, in which everyone participates all the time, and it is constantly open to the influence of all. As for a language, even if some individuals want to change it, it is impossible, because it belongs to the whole speech community. On the one hand, ‘arbitrary convention allows free choice’, and on the other hand, the ‘passage of time fixes that choice’. ‘It is because the linguistic sign is arbitrary that it knows no other law than that of tradition and because it is founded upon tradition that it can be arbitrary’ (Harris 1983:74).
2. Mutability of the Sign
Language signs are immutable; however, to some extent they are mutable as well. Mutability is based on the principle of immutability. Signs are within time and time in turn guarantees the continuity of signs. Signs are also in change. The change occurs to the signify and signifier. Before a sign comes into being, the combination of its concept and sound image is arbitrary and mutable. Once it is put into use and experiences certain time, it has the nature of immutability.
2.1 Language is a Product of Both Social Force and Time.
‘A language is situated socially and chronologically by reference to a certain community and a certain period of time’ (Harris 1983:76). Due to the arbitrary nature of the sign, no one can change it freely. But on the other hand, language is unable to resist the influence of all factors which tend to shift the relationships between the signified and the signifier. ‘Evolution is inevitable: there is no known example of a language immune from it. After a certain time, changes can always be seen to have taken place’ (Harris, 1983:76). Just as one of the statements of Carle Marx’s philosophy, movement is the essence of the material world. Nothing is unchangeable in a relative sense. 2.2 Language Changes in Social Activities.
Saussure compares language to the chess game. No matter what color the chesses are and what kinds of materials they are made of, players just follow the rules to play. If people want to change the rules, they need to reach an agreement. However, language is not like that. It is shifting continually with the passage of time and changes happen without a specific agreement. Changes just take place naturally and people sometimes accept them even without awareness. ‘A gradual transformation may occur, introducing new words by applying some current frame. There are many ways in which a language slowly changes. This feature is linked to the fact that no language, whatsoever, can exist except by being constantly transmitted, and this depends very much on its social character’ (Sanders 2004:98). Without speech community and their social activities and interrelations, language wouldn’t exist. Time alone can only guarantee the continuity of language rather than the mutability of it. Under the umbrella of the social nature, influences affecting the language vary from political and cultural events to the growth of science and even wars. Language is actually a mirror of progress. For example, the development of atomic energy and nuclear weapons has brought about words like chain reaction, hydrogen bomb, fallout and radioactive etc. With the exploration of space, we have words like astronaut and cosmonaut and some compounds like spacecraft, space shuttle, launch pad, and countdown etc.
However, if a language were observed only in terms of social forces without taking time into account, the effect of social forces to language would not be observed. Therefore, Saussure has deduced that the reality of a language can’t be fully understood unless both time and social nature are taken into account. As soon as we put the two elements together, ‘the language is not free, because time will permit the social forces working upon it to develop their effects, and we arrive at the principle of continuity, which annuls freedom’ (Saussure 1916:113).
2.3 Language Changes with the Passage of Time.
Time changes the relationship between the signifier and the signified and therefore the sign. As for English, it is spoken as a mother tongue by 400 million people and a second language for others in many countries. Many different national and regional varieties of English have developed. Some words get new concept like mouse originally denoting ‘a small mammal with short fur, a pointed face and a long tail’. Its meaning shifts with the development of technology referring to ‘a small device which movse a cursor on your computer screen’. Therefore, as time goes by, both the signifier and the signified change. In addition to it, the sound and spelling of words also change. These external elements greatly influence language. However, Saussure emphasizes that the source of language changes lies in language itself, and the continuity of time. According to him Mutability is inevitable and this is true even of an artificial language like Esperanto. It is under control only if it is not in use. Once it is in circulation and becomes the public property and everyone begins to use it, the control disappears. Therefore, Saussure says that ‘anyone who thinks he can construct a language not subject to change, which posterity must accept as it is, would be like a hen hatching a duck’s egg. The language he created would be subject to the same forces of change as any other language, regardless of its creator’s wishes’ (Harris 1983:76). Evolution is irresistible, so it is with the change of language. People rarely speak a certain language while considering how the language comes into being and how it changes. They just pay attention to the existing language being used. However, tracing back the origin of a certain language to its present state, we can not neglect its mutability in the long time river. 3. Conclusion
Relatively speaking, everything is changeable and unchangeable. Mutability and immutability take account of the passage of time that leads to two different approaches of language study, which is synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Since language is immutable, the existing and being-used language in a certain period of time by community can be studied. The passage of time brings about mutability of language so that language can also be studied in terms of its history. Saussure could hardly have imagined that his concept of the linguistic sign and nature of the sign would have given rise to so many intense arguments and further subsequent studies.
Bibliography:
Harris, R.. F. de Saussure. Course in General Linguistics. Gerald Duchworth& Co.Ltd 1983.
Sanders, C.. The Cambridge Companion to Saussure , Cambridge University Press. 2004.
Saussure.F. de.. Cours de Linguistique Generale.1916.
刘润清，封宗信. 语言学理论与流派[M].南京：南京师范大学出版社, 2002
作者简介
汪霞，1981-3-8生，女，汉族，吉林省长春市人，吉林财经大学公共外语部，讲师，硕士， 英语语言学及应用语言学。