Cognitive Linguistics - Term Paper Example

24). In his classification the “symbols” refer to the arbitrary signs, while “indices” and “icons” refer to the motivated ones. Arbitration is the process of giving the objects the titles that have nothing to do with its features and nature, while motivation is the process that is based on cause and effect relations between a referent and a sign. According to Pierce, the example of a “symbol” can be the word “table” – the sign does not reveal any outward or inner features or functions of the object.

However, his indices and icons are more or less motivated. Indices represent the signs where the sign is determined by proximity or causality. The examples here are the smoke coming from the building – that indicates fire, the movement of the pointed finger at any object is also an index. The relation here is based on causality, common knowledge and traditions of people’s culture. Studying icons Pierce distinguished three types of icons. Image is a kind of sign that either visually, audibly or in any other way resembles a referent.

The examples here include paintings, photos or onomatopoetic words. By copying something with gestures or mimics we also display images. The second type is metaphor that has a more elusive nature, though it is still based on the abstract resemblance of a referent. Using some gestures of non-verbal communication can also illustrate the metaphor, since it is based on a kind of meaningful transition. For instance, while discussing some problems a person can show the size of the problem with the hands.

Certainly, the size is abstract and relative but it has the beginning and the end. In this case the intention of a person to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem is the main factor that refers it to the “image” sign. The third type is diagrams that show information, tendencies or figures in absolutely another way, but still they do not represent the very object to us. A wiring diagram demonstrates the relationship between “the parts of a circuit, but neither the general form of the diagram nor the indexes of the certain parts need to look like the physical circuit” (Hinton, 1994, p. 34) In the history of linguistics scientists tended to focus more on arbitration than on motivation.

Though, it cannot be but mention that the most part of the signs in the language are of the arbitrary nature, but still the motivated ones are not to be neglected. As mentioned above all our gestures that go with our verbal speech are sure to have the motivated nature. The language of the deaf has a more iconic implication than the spoken language. The examples of early written languages Sumerian, ancient Chinese and Egyptian bore the iconic nature. The language in this case was carried out through the pictograms or signs that represent exactly an icon.

Unlike the study of Saussure the signs of the spoken language do not have only arbitrary nature. The motivated signs refer not only to onomatopoeia and sound symbolism but also to some syntactical structures. A man has many various forms of communication, though it is possible to mark out two basic forms of it. It is necessary to understand the development and importance of motivation signs and for translators and interpreters it is necessary to differentiate them in the process of communication.

Our two most typical forms of communic