Register now or log in to join your professional community.
The relationship between language as a combination of sounds (the signifier) and meaning (the signified) is arbitrary as DeSaussure argues. In fact, the same signified (concept) is referred to differently by each language. For instance, a tree is referred to as "tree" in English, "arbre" in French, "shajara" in Arabic, "albero" in Italian etc. which proves that there is no logical relationship between the words we use (as combinations of sounds) and what they actually refer to (meaning).