Saussure's View of Language as a System of Arbitrary Signs

Saussure’s view that signs stand for their referents in an arbitrary fashion reflects a view of semiosis that separates sensory-bodily processes from cognitive ones.It remains Saussure’s most controversial assertion within semiotics,even though it is a perspective that is found as an axiom in various cognitive sciences.This paper revisits Saussurean arbitrariness theory,showing how it breaks down in various ways when considering concrete semiotics phenomena.Nevertheless,as a model of semiosis,it has provided a basis on which to discuss and research semiosis in real-world terms.