Saussure's Arbitrariness Of Linguistic Signs And Its Application In Figures Of Speech's Practical Analysis

In the early nineteenth century, linguist Saussure put forward the arbitrariness oflinguistic signs on the dual relationship of signification and signal.In the paper, the first part makes a clear enumeration and carding of the discussion onSaussure's arbitrariness in linguistic field.In the second part, it is demonstrated that there had been the descriptions ofarbitrariness before Saussure, though they were fragmentary and incomplete. Based onthis, this part gives a thorough introduction of Saussure's arbitrariness of linguistic signs.In the last part, it is thought that the research on Saussure's arbitrariness should bemade on the combination of language theory and rhetorical analysis, and not be limited tothe deduction from theory to theory.This part combines Saussure' statement with figuresof speech analyzing and suggested that figures of speech is the rhetorical application ofSaussure's arbitrariness.