기호의 자의성에 관한 인식론적 계보와 쟁점 연구

초록

This study elucidates that the ‘arbitrariness of the sign’, a core concept in Saussurean linguistics, was formed within a genealogy of modern philosophy tracing back to Descartes and Locke. Unlike preceding thinkers who understood arbitrariness functionally, viewing the sign as a transparent tool for representation, Saussure defined the relationship between the signifier and the signified as one of ‘immotivation’, thereby establishing linguistics as an autonomous science independent of the external world. However, the editors of Cours de linguistique générale inverted the causal relationship between arbitrariness and value, reducing the concept to a mere empirical fact. Benveniste’s criticism also stems from the limitations of this edited text. Accordingly, this paper reinterprets Saussure’s theory through Bouquet’s concept of ‘double arbitrariness’. Bouquet identifies the core of Saussure’s thought in the combination of the ‘arbitrariness of the signifier’, based on social convention, and the ‘arbitrariness of value’, which concerns the way language segments the world. In conclusion, the ‘arbitrariness of value’ guarantees that langue is a system of internal differences, while the ‘arbitrariness of the signifier’ ensures its stability as a social institution. This dual principle is the key mechanism explaining how langue can coexist as both an immutable social ‘institution’ and, simultaneously, a dynamic ‘system of meaning generation’.

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