What is Semantics: Brief Explanation

Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. It focuses on the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words and sentences in language, not on what a spaeker might want the words to mean in a particular occasion. It means that semantics only deals with objective and general meaning rather than subjective and local meaning.

Linguists and Philosophers invent three ways in defining meaning. First, by defining the essence of words or lexicon meaning, second, by defining the essence of the meaning of sentence, and third, by explaining communication process. Therefore based on the above ways of defining meaning,  the study of semantics is broken down into are three levels, in which they have different and varied theories to analyze each levels, those are:

• Lexical semantic 
• Sentential semantic, and
• Speech act semantic

Lexical semantic is semantic which tries to explain the meaning of words or lexicon, it means that the focus of this level is only in word and lexicon. Before I go to the kinds of theories in analyzing this level. I want to ask you something. What is the different between word and lexicon anyway? To differentiate those two terms have a look these illustration.

1.  What is the meaning of "kill"?

2. You kill the deer with a gun.

Take a close attention to the word "kill" on those two sentences, the first "kill" refers to word and the second "kill" refers to lexicon. So can you guess what is word and lexicon? Yes you're right, word refers to phonological construct which carries meaning in which it doesn't have any context. Meanwhile, lexicon refers to word which is context sensitive, or word that have context is called lexicon. Therefore you can safely say that every lexicon is word but word is not necessarily lexicon.

There are generally four kinds of theories in this level, those are:

• Referential Theory;
• Image Theory;
• Conceptual Theory; and
• Componential Analysis Theory.

Sentential semantic, the higher level of lexical semantic, is semantic which tries to explain the meaning of sentence. Sentence refers to a group of words which contain a topic and a comment. e.g. "John killed a deer" means that John caused a deer to die. There are three kinds of theories used to analyze this level, those are:

• Truth Condition Theory;
• Theory of Deep Structure; and
• Theory of Predicate Calculus 

Speech act semantic is semantic which tries to explain the meaning of utterances in language used. There are eight features of language in use, those are:

• Appropriacy
• Non-literal or indirect
• Inference
• Indeterminacy
• Context
• Relevance
• Reflexivity
• Misfire

Linguistic Competence and Linguistic Performance

There are so many controversies among linguists from time to time, one of them is structuralism vs. generativism. Structuralism was once introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure, in which almost all the concepts of language are strongly influenced by behaviorism paradigm which argues that human mind is just like "blank paper" when they are born (tabula rasa). Based on this concept, structuralism believes that the acquisition of language is learned, which means that  the language abilities possessed by  human is gained by process of learning from surroundings. In addition, they also believe that language is just like a building, which means that it is built from the small parts to create the bigger one. language is built from sentences, sentences are from clauses, clauses are from phrases, and so ford, up to phones.

Meanwhile, generativism which was introduced by Noam Avram Chomsky argues that in the matter of language, the concepts proposed by structuralism are too simple. If we want to understand how language is mastered and used by human, we have to separate what is called cognitive system, that is a system underlying the ability of human to use and master language. In other words, human since they were born unconsciously have system of language in their brain (competence). That is why this paradigm argues that language is innate not learned.

Generative grammar is founded on the idea that linguistics should create a "grammar" that allows us to (in theory) generate every possible sentence in a language using a set of rules. It  is simply an abstract theory that allows us to make a list (in theory) of all sentences, given the time to do so (which would be infinite-- there are infinitely many possible sentences). With tricks like recursion, it is in theory possible to design such a grammar, although so far no perfect grammar for any language has actually been written. And in theory, such a grammar also exists in our heads as "linguistic competence", while something else explains how we actually use it to speak, an action called "linguistic performance"-- and that can be imperfect, with speech errors, etc.

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See also:

Chomsky's Generative Linguistics: An Introduction

Linguistic Competence and Linguistic Performance

Deep Structure vs. Surface Structure
5 Definitions of Deep Structure

Phrase Structure Rules

Transformation Rules

Tree Diagram

The First Linguist Recorded by History

Herodotus was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-425 BC). He is known because of his writing 'history', a collection of stories about different places and people that he collects during his travels. Because of his work, he is often regarded as the 'father of history'.


The scientific contribution of the Greeks in the linguistic world was in their carefulness of observation on the language development as the result of the trade interaction and political diplomacy between the Greeks and other countries and also the occupation of the colonies. Such interactions brought about a change of language in terms of lexical (borrowing), sentence patterns, and changes the meaning of an utterance. As a result, Greek dialect which used to be only one  (monolect) turns into many dialects (multilect). The first study of Greek dialects was introduced by Herodotus.


The development of the Greek dialects remained a problem to be solved, which should be the dialect used by the scholar? In studying the various dialects of the Greek language, Herodotus made an observation of foreign words which had been mixed into Greek language. Herodotus suggested the scholars to use the dialect used by Homeric scholars who have truly mastered the works of Homer, of which the most famous are the Iliad and Odyssey. He realized that the language used in the works of Homer did not follow the dialects used by the Greeks at the time, in other words, the language used in the works of Homer in Greek were still 'original' which was not yet 'contaminated' by foreign languages​​. These works occupied a high position in the world of Greek education at that time, scholars had made ​​it as a source of reference in character education.

Discourse Deixis

Discourse deixis deals with the orientation in the text through the writer or the speaker, the relation of the text passages to the current utterance either as a head of time or past, forthcoming or simultaneous. It encodes reference to portions of the unfolding discourse in which the utterance is located (Levinson, 1983, p.62). It means that discourse deixis is deictic reference to a portion of a discourse relative to the speaker’s current location in the discourse, such as: above, below, last, previous, proceeding, next or following (usually used in texts) and this, that, there, next, last (usually used in utterances).

In spoken or written discourse, there is frequently occassion to refer to earlier or forthcoming segments of the discourse. Since discourse unfolds in time, it is natural to use temporal deictic terms to indicate the relation of the referred to to the temporal location of the present utterance in the discourse. But spatial terms are also often employed. Reference to parts of of a discourse which can only be interpreted by knowing where the current coding or receiving point is, are clearly deictic in character (Asher 1994, p.856).

Levinson (1983, p.85-86) added that discourse deixis should be distinguished from a related notion that of anaphora. Moreover, discourse deixis shares with anaphora and cataphora the capacity to function as a text cohesion device. As we noted, anaphora concerns with the use of a pronoun to refer to the same referent as some prior term. Anaphora can hold within sentences, across sentences, and across at speaking in a dialogue. Deictic or other referring expressions are often used to introduce a referent, and anaphoric pronouns are used to refer to the same entity thereafter. However, it is important to remember that deictic and anaphoric usages are not mutually exclusive. Therefore, in principle the distinction is clear: when a pronoun refers to a linguistic expression itself, it is discourse deictic. When a pronoun refers to the same entity as a prior linguistic expression refers to, it is anaphoric.

In other words, discourse deixis is an expression used to refer to certain discourse that contain the utterance or as a signal and its relations to surrounding text.

A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Social Deixis

Social deixis does not deal with three main components (person, place and time) of the coordinate system of subjective orientation, but they show how different social rankings and the participants of communication utter relationships within society via language. Briefly, it is rather to refer to the level of relationship between people than to information.

Levinson (1983, p.90) stated that social deixis concerns with the aspects of sentences which reflect or establish or determined by certain realities of participants or the social situation in which the speech event occurs. He adds that there are two basic kinds of social deixis information that seems to be encoded in language around the world. They are: Relational social deixis and Absolute social deixis. Relational social deixis is a deictic reference to some social characteristic of referrent apart from any relative ranking of referents or deictic reference to a social relationship between the speaker and addressee. In English, relational social deixis may be a lexical items (e.g. my husband, teacher, cousin, etc), pronouns (you, her). Absolute social deixis is a deictic reference usually expressed in certain forms of address which will include no comparison of the ranking of the speaker and addresse. For examples: your highness, Mr. President, your majesty, etc.

Briefly, social deixis is a deictic expression used to distinct social status. Social deixis separated in to two kinds relational and absolute social deixis.
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 A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Time Deixis

Time deixis is also called as temporal deixis. Renkema (1993, p.79) stated that time deixis is a reference to time relative to a temporal reference point and it is typically the moment of utterance. These language resources are the adjectives of time in the line….yesterday….now….tomorrow, and the verb tenses. The verb sometimes also has another function besides referring to a specific time.

Furthermore, Levinson (1993, p.73) said that the basis for systems of reckoning and measuring time in most languages seem to be the natural and prominent cycles of day and night, lunar months, season and years.

While, Grundy (2000, p.31-32) states another important time deixis is tense system. In fact, almost every sentence makes reference to an event time. Often this event time can only be determined in relation to the time of the utterance. Moreover, Yule (1996, 14-15) says that the basic type of temporal deixis in English is in the choice of verb tense. English only has two basic forms, the present and the past. For example:
a. I live here now.
b. I live there then.
The present tense is the proximal form as in (a) and the past tense is distal form as in (b).

The deictic items use reference can only be determined in relation to the time of the utterance in which they occur. Such as:
• This / last / next Monday / week / month / year.
• Now, then, ago, later, soon, before.
• Yesterday, today, tomorrow.
In other words, time deixis is an expression in relation to point to certain period when the utterances produced by the speaker.

 A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Place Deixis

Place deixis is also described as spatial deixis, where the relative location of people and things is being indicated. Place deixis or spatial deixis usually expressed in this, these, there, here, that, and those. Place deixis can be described along many of the same parameters that apply to the time deixis. Therefore, those references to place can be absolute or relational in nature. Absolute references to place locate an object or person in a specific longitude and latitude, while relational references locate people and place in terms of each other and the speaker (Cummings 2005, p.26).

Levinson (1983, p.79) stated that place or space deixis concerns for the specification of locations to anchorage points in the speech event and typically the speaker, and there are two basic ways of referring objects by describing or naming them on the one hand and by locating them on the other. Alternatively, they can be deictically specified to the location of participants at the time of speaking. There are a proximal (close to the speaker) such as this, and these, and a distal (sometime close to the addressee) such as that, and those. Each may be used either as a pronoun or in a combination with noun.

Grundy (2000, p.28) add that there are three degrees of proximity is by no means uncommon, with some languages distinguishing proximity to the speaker and to the addressee. They are: here (proximal), there (distal), where (and the archaic hither, hence, thither, thence, wither, whence), left, right, up, down, above, below, in front, behind, come go, bring, and  take.

Briefly, place deixis is an expression used to show the location relative to the location of a participant in the speech even.

 A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Deixis Theory Proposed by Stephen C. Levinson

There are four kinds of deixis proposed by Levinson, they are:
A. Person Deixis
In many languages, person deixis can also contain other meaning elements like the gender of the third person. In addition, to pronoun and agreeing predicates, person, or participant-role is marked in various other ways. Person deixis concerns with the encoding of the role of participants in the speech even in which the utterance in question is delivered. Yule (1996, p.9-10) describe that person deixis involves the speaker and the addressee and operates in a basic three-part division they are:

a) First person (I). The first person deixis is a reference that refers to the speaker or both speaker and referent grouped with the speaker which is expressed in singular pronouns (I, me, myself, mine) and plural pronouns (we, us, ourselves, our, ours). The first person deixis can be divided into exclusive first person deixis, which refers to a group including addressee.

b) Second person (you). The second person deixis is a deictic reference to a person or persons identified as addressee, such as you, yourself, yourselves, your, yours.

c) And the third person (He, She, It). Third person deixis is a deictic reference to a referent(s) not identified as the speaker or addressee and usually imply to the gender that the utterance refers to, for example: he, she, and they, him, himself, her, herself.

Renkema (1993, p.77) adds that person deixis is realized with personal pronouns. The speaker as the first person (I) direct the utterance to the listener as second person (You), and conclude be talking about a third person (He, She, and It).

In other words, person deixis is described as expression in which to refer to person who the speakers intend to refer.

 A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Deixis

Deixis deals with connections between discourse and the situation in which discourse is used. The term of ‘deixis’ is derived from the Greek word which mean ‘to show’ or ‘to indicate’ used to denote the elements in a language which refer directly to the situation. Moore (2001, 14) give definition about deixis as follows:

"Deixis is an important field of language study in its own right and very important for learners of languages. But it has some relevance to analysis of conversation and pragmatics. It is often and best described as "verbal pointing", that is to say pointing by means of language. The linguistic forms of this pointing are called deictic expressions, deictic markers or deictic words; they are also sometimes called indexicals."

Moreover, deixis is a technical term (from Greek) for one of the most basic things we do with utterance. Or it can be said ‘pointing’ via language. Essentially language, deixis concerns with the ways in which the interpretation of utterance depends on the analysis of that context of utterance.

In English, according to Yule (1996, p.93) there are three different ways to point out in. They are gesture, symbolic and anaphoric. Gesture is used by which it can be properly interpreted only by somebody who is monitoring some physical aspects of communication situation. Example: I want you to copy this paper. Symbolic use of deictic expression means that the interpretation involves merely knowing certain aspects of the speech communication situation, whether this knowledge comes by common perception or not. For example: I want you to put the paper there. Anaphoric is the use of expression that can be correctly interpreted by knowing what other portions of the same discourse that expression is co-referential with anaphoric use of an expression, which can be seen in the sentence; I have copied the paper and I put it there.


A. Person Deixis

B. Place Deixis

C. Time Deixis

D. Discourse Deixis

E. Social Deixis
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See also:
Deixis

Presupposition

Presupposition is first assumption that appears in speaker's mind in conversation that the hearer can understand what the speaker is talking about.  Presupposition is assumption that the addressee is able to understand what the speaker means because the speaker's utterance has certain sign, context, and reference that is understood by interlocutor.


In addition, Palmer (1989: 181) tries to explain this by giving an example "the king of France is bald", Palmer tries to compare the notion of Russell (1905) and Strawson in which according to Russell, considered by Palmer as the first notion appeared, the sentence "the king of France is bald" indicates two things, first, the existence of king of France and the king is bald. If essentially the king of France does not exist, the sentence is judged as fake or false sentence, and conversely. The second notion comes from Strawson, he states that in sentence "the king of France is bald", the speaker supposes that the hearer is able to recognize exactly the man or thing in the sentence uttered by him exists. So that the speaker is not necessary to confirm whether the man or thing is really exist, however the speaker only makes presupposition about the existence of it. If the man or thing does not exist, so it will appear what is called 'the failure of presupposition', and the sentence is not true or false. Simpler we can say that, if sentence (a) presuppose sentence (b), the truth of the sentence (b) must follow from the truth of sentence (a), but if sentence (b) is false, then the sentence (a) will has no truth value. 


In addition presupposition is divided into two categories, they are: logic presupposition and pragmatic presupposition. Logic presupposition is presupposition which deals with the arrangement and understanding of message in which as the part of semantics has logic relationship with form of expression, both in coding and structuring of relationship. In addition, pragmatic presupposition is presupposition which deals with context, both in the relation between the users and social-situational surrounded it.


In the study of logic of language, we know about the term propositional calculus. This term basically involve two concepts, they are: calculus and proposition. Calculus is 'taking conclusion determining truth' and proposition is 'statement which suitable with abstraction in the consciousness of the user'. So that, propositional calculus deals with characteristics abstraction of reference when it is in the conceptualization of expression, taking conclusion of the characteristic of relationship of abstraction result is signed by connective sign, such as: which, that, to be, and, not, or. For instance, '"Malang is beautiful city", when the speaker abstracts Malang city for instance, he has known well about Malang city so that he is able to give earmark' beautiful'.  
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See also:

• Formal Semantics
• Analytic Sentence
• Synthetic Sentence
• Entailment
• Presupposition

Entailment

Entailment is a relationship that applies between two sentences, where the truth of one implies the truth of the other because the meanings of the words involved. It is relation between sentences such that the truth of the second sentence necessarily follows from the truth of the first. The test of entailment can be done as follows: sentence (a) entails sentence (b) if the truth of sentence (a) insures the truth of sentence (b) and if the falsity of sentence (b) insures the falsity of sentence (a). For instance, (a) Adi is a bachelor (b) Adi has been unmarried. In this case, sentence (a) entails sentence (b) because the truth of sentence (a) insures the truth sentence (b) (if Adi is a bachelor, he is automatically unmarried), and the falsity of sentence (b) insures the falsity of sentence (a) (if Adi is married, he is not bachelor). However, the relation of entailment is unidirectional, it means the position between sentence (a) and (b) are irreplaceable. For instance, let us take the previous example and try to replace them, (b) Adi has been unmarried (a) Adi is a bachelor. In this case, sentence (b) does not entail sentence (a¬) because if Adi has been unmarried, it does not mean that he a bachelor, it is very possible that he is a widower or etc. (Kempson, 1977: 142).

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See also:

• Formal Semantics
• Analytic Sentence
• Synthetic Sentence
• Entailment
• Presupposition

Synthetic Sentence

Sentence which might be true or false depend on the world which they refer. In contrast to analytic sentences, synthetic sentences are not true or false because of the words which comprise them; they, however, do or do not accurately describe some state of affairs in the world. For instance, the sentence, 'Adi's home is burning.' is a synthetic sentence. We cannot judge its truth or falsity by examining the words in the sentence. We must investigate the truth or falsity of this sentence empirically. 


In addition, there are certain sentences which make us confuse to determine whether it is included in analytic or synthetic sentence. For instance the sentence ' oxygen is not blue', the problem appears concerning the color of the oxygen, because we do not know the color of oxygen since we can not see it just feel it, in this case the sentence tend to be included into synthetic sentence since the definition of the two categories them selves, analytic is true by definition and synthetic is true as the result of investigating, verifying, and falsifying empirically. 

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See also:

• Formal Semantics
• Analytic Sentence
• Synthetic Sentence
• Entailment
• Presupposition

Analytic Sentence

An analytic sentence is one that is necessarily true as a result of the words in it. For instance "bachelor is unmarried man” is true not because the world is the way it is, but because of the English is the way it is. Based on our English knowledge, the word 'bachelor' means 'unmarried man'. It is not necessary for us to check on the outside world to prove the truth of this sentence. In the other word, the sentence is obligatory true, it is not bounded the condition that follows, based on the relationships between words formed the sentence (Kempson, 1977: 26). In addition, it can be defined that analytic sentence are "true by definition". Analytic truth may be considered as linguistic truth since they are true in virtue of the language itself. Parker in Ahmadin (1998: 17).

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See also:

• Formal Semantics
• Analytic Sentence
• Synthetic Sentence
• Entailment
• Presupposition

Formal semantics

Although the term of 'formal semantic' might be used in a very general sense to refer to a whole set of different approaches to the study of meaning, it is usually employed nowadays with particular reference to a certain version of truth conditional semantics which originated in the investigation of specially constructed formal languages by logicians and has recently been applied to the investigation of natural languages.


According to Tarski to know the meaning of certain sentence, it means to understand in what condition the sentence is true. For instance, the sentence 'snow is white', to know the meaning of that sentence we have to understand what condition existed that supports that sentence is true. There is a formula concerning this discussion:


S is true if and if only P


S refers to the sentence, and P refers to the condition which supports the S. from the preceding example we can say that snow is white is true and if only snow is white.


In addition, the study of truth condition falls into two basic categories: the study of different types included in individual sentences: analytic and syntactic; and the study of different types of truth connections that hold between sentences; entailment and presupposition. 
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See also:

• Formal Semantics
• Analytic Sentence
• Synthetic Sentence
• Entailment
• Presupposition

Chomsky's Generative Linguistics: An Introduction

Perspective Border
Q:        Why is it called 'generative'?

A:      'generative'- to generate = (1) to produce, (2) to specify the rules

(1)  owing to our mental grammar, when we speak / write we produce new grammatical sentences.

(2)  Generative Grammar describes our mental grammar by specifying the rules / making the hidden linguistic rules in our head explicit. It has two ways:

(a) by drawing a tree structure (Tree diagrams);

(b) by stating the Phrase Structure (PS) Rules in the form of “re-write” rules: X à X  Z 

(e.g., S à NP  VP)

Three important linguistic principles
Q:      What makes us able to distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences?

A:      The “mental grammar” or the “linguistic competence” in our mind does.

The first principle proposed by Chomsky is (1) Language is a mental fact.

How many sentences do you think you can arrange from these words?

"saw – tigers – Wilson"

(1)        *Saw tigers Wilson (ill-formed)

(2)        *Saw Wilson tigers (ill-formed)

(3)        Tigers saw Wilson (unusual meaning)

(4)        *Tigers Wilson saw (ill-formed)

(5)        Wilson saw tigers (well-formed)

(6)        *Wilson tigers saw (ill-formed)

Q:        Can language imitated and produced by parrot be called a language?

A:        (2) Language is innate in the sense that every human child is endowed with the LAD (language acquisition device).  It is this LAD that makes  language  acquisition possible.  Note that the LAD is species-specific, that is, only humans—but not animals—have the LAD.  Therefore, only humans—but not animals—can acquire human language.

Q:        Can you produce an English sentence/ utterance that never be used by any other human in this surface of the earth?

A:        (3) Language is creative.  “linguistic creativity” = crossing the borders / limits of linguistic rules,e.g., That’s very you; kopi banget; benci àmembencikan; to slipper the cockroach; Is this a knock-knock bird?

This can be explained in two different ways.  First, as noted above, “linguistic

creativity” means crossing the borders/limits of the existing linguistic rules.  In

addition to the examples given above, some poets are fond of “violating” linguistic

rules, since they are entitled to “poetic license” = lisensia puitika

            Anyone lived in a pretty how town

            With up so floating many bells down

            Spring summer autumn winter

            He sang his didn’t, he danced his did.

                                                (E. E. Cummings)

Secondly, “creativity” refers to our every use of our language.  Every time we speak / write, we “create” new utterances/sentences. 

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See also:

Chomsky's Generative Linguistics: An Introduction

Linguistic Competence and Linguistic Performance

Deep Structure vs. Surface Structure
5 Definitions of Deep Structure

Phrase Structure Rules

Transformation Rules

Tree Diagram

Alphabetic Writing

• A set of written symbols which each represent a single type of sound;
• The origins of the writing systems of Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew;
• largely consist of consonant symbols;
• Early Greeks took the alphabetizing process a stage further by also using separate symbols to represent the vowel sounds as distinct entities.

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See also:

• Symbols
• Pictograms
• Logograms
• Syllabic Writing
• Alphabetic Writing 

Syllabic Writing

 When a writing system employs a set of symbols which represent the pronunciations of syllables;
 The symbols do not correspond to single consonants or vowels, but to syllables. Below are the examples of syllabic writing taken from Javanese language (Ha Na Ca Ra Ka):

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See also:

• Symbols
• Pictograms
• Logograms
• Syllabic Writing
• Alphabetic Writing 

Logograms

The symbols really give no clue to what type of entity is being referred to;

— The relationship between the written form and the object it represents has become arbitrary;

— Cuneiform (wedge-shaped)writing, equipped by Sumerians (The earliest known writing system);

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See also:

• Symbols
• Pictograms
• Logograms
• Syllabic Writing
• Alphabetic Writing 

Pictograms

In the history of human kind, we know symbol was first introduced by Ancient Egyptian. They used hieroglyphs as their written language which were in the form of symbols
“Picture” that represents particular images in a consistent way (picture-writing);
—Everyone should use similar forms to convey roughly similar meaning;
—A conventional relationship must exist between the symbols and its interpretations.

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See also:

• Symbols
• Pictograms
• Logograms
• Syllabic Writing
• Alphabetic Writing 

Arbitrary

“Language is an arbitrary vocal symbol by means of which the members of society communicate each other”

If we see the above definition proposed by the majority of linguist, there is no matter it seems and it’s so perfect to represent the concept of language. There are at least two ideas proposed in the above definition: arbitrary vocal symbols and means of communication.

Arbitrary

Term arbitrary refers to a concept in which the words in language are derived, the excerpt of this concept tells us how the language items have no direct connection with the concept they represent. Just say do you know about how a thing made of wood usually has square shape and four legs which function as the pair of chair is called table. Is there any direct connection between the word constructed from letters t, a, b, l, e with the above concept it represents?  Note this; all letters in various languages in this surface of the earth are symbols. Or do you know how the crime of killing another person deliberately and not in self-defense or with any other extenuating circumstance recognized by law or in a simple words, an action causes the separation of soul from the body intentionally is called murder? And how the combination of qualities that makes something pleasing and impressive to look at, listen to, touch, smell, or taste is called beauty? There is no an adequate information how those words are originated, generally, we can only say that those words have been agreed by the language users. Those are the result of the convention among the language users in a society. The above concept is the simple description of what term arbitrary means. However, did you know that not all language or just say words are derived arbitrarily. Take a look these words below:

Onomatopoeia

What kind of phenomena is that? It seems that there is a direct connection between terms and the concept they represent. Don’t get confuse, since the derivation of words is not totally using arbitrary pattern, although generally they are, but some aren’t, just like in those above words. Yes they are, they have a direct connection with the concepts they represent, just say, “bark”, since the sound produced by a dog is bark…bark…bark… so that that kind of action in English called barking or bark. Or what do you think? How is the sound produced by a cat? Or how is the sound produced by a lion? And how is the sound produced by a cow? From what comes to human ears, those sounds are made as the name of the action concepts. That concept is called onomatopoeia, the echo of nature, formation of words which sound like the meaning they represent.

Thus, which one is the correct one? What is the natural characteristic of language? Is it arbitrary or onomatopoeia? Or is that the above definition is incorrect?

Indeed, it is debatable, the definition of language itself can be so varies, and however, the majority of linguists agree that the above definition is adequate enough to give sufficient understanding on what language is. Always remember most dominant data is used to conclude the whole thing, it also happens in this case, since the dominant words derivation process of languages through the concept of arbitrariness so that we can say that language is arbitrary.