The four-syllable word arbitrary is derived from the prefix ary, which means independent. Related words include arbitrariness, arbitrarily, and independent judge. Arbitrary can also be found in various languages; if you want to learn more about the word, use WordSense.
Increasing the dimensions by which signs can be distinguished means that arbitrariness would not be required
The modern study of linguistics is based on the dualistic notion of sign, which was first proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure, the “father” of modern linguistics. This notion is fundamentally different from the earlier philosophers who saw signs as symbols with no relation to meaning. However, the distinction between sign and meaning is crucial to understanding how humans synthesize words.
Semiotics is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of signs used by the mind. It was first developed in the Middle Ages by Augustine and continued in the Renaissance with John Poinsot’s Tractatus de Signis. The theory was revived in the late 19th century with Charles Sanders Peirce’s attempt in 1867. Umberto Eco also developed this branch of philosophy with his semiotics work and proposed four modes of sign production.
The semiotic definition of sign can be generalized by expanding the range of sign systems and their relation to objects. It extends the definition of language to encompass biological, psychological, and sociological phenomena. It also deals with the relationship between the sign system and its agents.
Increasing the robustness of the observed sound-meaning mapping
To assess the robustness of observed sound-meaning mappings, we can measure the similarity between the two words’ meanings and sound features. The result is a distance of 5138 x 5137/2, a measure of sound-meaning correspondence. We also use the correlation of these distances to measure the relative iconicity of the words. A positive correlation indicates that the words’ meanings and sounds are related, while a negative correlation indicates that they are not.
We found that words used in similar contexts tend to share similar sounds. But this does not necessarily mean that similar sounding words are always close together. Some processing constraints may prevent these words from occurring so close to each other. This finding contradicts the view that sound-meaning mappings are completely arbitrary.
During adaptation to a new background condition, listeners use multiple methods to measure sound similarity. One method involves calculating the optimal string alignment Damerau-Levenshtein distance over phonemes, which measures the number of phoneme changes necessary to convert two words.
Systematicity promotes understanding of the communicative function of language early in development.
In early language acquisition, systematicity is one feature that may promote an understanding of the communicative function of language. It may be attributed to the fact that words acquired during early language development are often similar in sound, resulting in cross-modal constraints. In addition, systematicity can lead to learning mappings between sound and meaning.
The systematicity of early language is related to the ontogenesis of topographic maps in the neocortex, which are composed of cortical regions corresponding to similar stimuli. This topography allows cross-modal correspondences because similar stimuli are encoded in nearby cortical regions. As such, representations that activate adjacent cortical regions can map to the same regions of a different sensory cortex. They also map to regions with less white matter, suggesting that systematic mappings are pressure on the neural substrate.
The systematicity of word-sound mappings varies across a vocabulary, with early words showing the greatest systematicity, followed by later vocabulary with a decreasing systematicity. However, early vocabulary shows enhanced systematicity, confirming the view that systematicity promotes an understanding of the communicative function of language. While a child’s first words are usually arbitrary, systematic mappings in a word’s vocabulary are essential for bootstrapping word learning.
Impact of arbitrariness for later-acquired words
Arbitrariness plays a crucial role in determining meaning distinctions. It helps mature language users determine nuanced meanings and maximizes the information in a speech signal. It is especially important when contextual information is limited. As a result, it is important to understand the role of arbitrariness in later-acquired words.
The impact of arbitrariness is more pronounced for later-acquired words than for early-acquired words. This is because children who acquire a small vocabulary are less likely to have distinctiveness. On the other hand, children with a large vocabulary tend to have greater systematicity than those with a small vocabulary.
Although arbitrariness is less common in the early acquisition of words, it may benefit later-acquired words. It promotes learning category distinctions, which may become more important as a child’s vocabulary grows. Arbitrariness also limits the likelihood of ambiguity in expressions. However, these effects have not been studied experimentally.