Motivation in the Forms of Signs

MOTIVATION IN THE FORMS OF SIGNS Douglas McArthur The nature of sign forms It is a basic principle of semiologyl that the relationship between the sign form (e.g. a written word or a gestured word of a sign language) and its meaning, or 'the concept that it expresses,' is a matter of association in the mind of the user. Thus, Spanishspeaking people associate the concept of DOG with the word perro,Italian speakers associate this concept with the form cane, etc.; but for communication to take place, at least two individuals must associate a given concept with the same sign form. Bilinguals , in the general sense of the term, and interpreters and translators , are very much aware of the basic nature of the sign; i.e. that different people may associate not one but more than one sign form with one (more or less identical) concept. The relationship -associationofform andmeaning in the mind of the usermight be contrasted with other relationships (e.g. cause and effect or part and whole) in which the link is necessary or inevitable. In practice, however, the association of form with meaning is usually so strong in the mind of the user that further linkage does not seem necessary. Compare the importance of the forms used in religion, magic, taboo, etc. with those in everyday interaction. We are reminded of the basic associative nature of the relationship between form and meaning by such special uses: Scientific: "Let x (sign form) have the value (sign meaning) of minus one, for the purposes of this calculation." Liturgical: "Let this child (sign meaning) be called Aloysius (sign form)." 1.=Also semiotics, the study of signs of all kinds. @1992 Linstok Press, Inc. ISSN 0302-1475 McArthur The term "arbitrary" is sometimes used for the relationship between sign form and sign meaning, and the term "conventional " is also used for this relationship. It should be noted that the phrase "the arbitrary nature of the sign" -in Saussure, I'arbitrairedu sign, has two different senses that the literature does not usually distinguish clearly, probably because they are interrelated : First, it means that the relationship between sign form and sign meaning is just a matter of association; second, sign meanings themselves, like any concepts, are arbitrary. Different individuals and different communities have different kinds of experience that they tag with forms-words, symbols, gestures, etc.; they may interpret the same experience different ways; they have different fantasies, different abstract ideas, different outlooks on life. In other words, concepts in general, and sign meanings in particular, are relative. Even if the relationship between sign form and sign meaning is basically association in the mind ofthe user, often the choice of sign form is not totally random; in such cases the semiologist (or linguist following Saussure) says that the relationship (or the form) is motivated.There are in fact a number of different kinds of motivation, but distinguishing them is difficult because in a given context two or more different motivations may be operating at the same time. It may also be the case that what I consider different motivations are really aspects ofthe same thing. I think we can distinguish at least four main kinds of motivation : the iconic (also called "representational" or "analogic," but the latter term is ambiguous because it is sometimes used for what I call the taxonomic); the memorable; the ludic (i.e. concerned with "play"); and the taxonomic (See McArthur, SLS 70: 61-71). Iconic motivation The motive here is representation: for the inventor and/or users of the sign, features or qualities of the sign form reproduce or represent features of the "thing" referred to. Iconic motivation is apparent in representational drawing, in maps, in many of the signs in sign languages, in onomatopoeic words, etc. There is relativity (variation) in representation for a number of reasons; e.g. the inventor may select different features of the thing represented, SLS 77 Motivation insign forms as in drawing a face one may give more or less attention to different details. (Note too that what one can represent depends on the medium in which one creates the sign form; with an ordinary pencil one cannot distinguish a...