How to understand the ambiguity and ambiguity of language symbols

Language symbols are symbols that express meaning in the form of sound. Language is actually a symbol, which has all the characteristics of symbols. Any symbol is composed of form and meaning, and language is no exception. Language consists of pronunciation and meaning. Phonology is the material shell and existing form of language. Meaning is the content of language. Phonetics and meaning are unified in a specific language, and they are inseparable. They are the conditions of mutual existence: without phonological form, language has no dependence, can't be perceived by people, can't exist at all, let alone be used in communication; Without meaningful content, phonological forms will lose their meaning and have no need to exist. The connection between pronunciation and semantics is established by members of society, and individuals cannot change this connection at will. [ 1]

Language sign is a communication sign system composed of sound and meaning. "Sound" is the material expression of language symbols, and "meaning" is the content of language symbols. Only the combination of sound and meaning can refer to real phenomena and form language symbols. Language symbols include spoken and written language in the form of written symbols; Nonverbal symbols include images, colors, lights, music and body language. Language symbol is a tool for communication between people and one of the most important media in human society. People use language symbols to express ideas, convey feelings and exchange knowledge. "In the philosophical sense, thoughts are expressed through language. Thinking is the' core' of language, and language is the' shell' of thinking.

As a linguistic symbol, there are two main differences between it and other symbols: one is complexity. In the existing symbol system, language symbols are the most complicated. The second is fuzziness. This is mainly manifested in "the fuzziness of the meaning of symbolic language itself" and "the fuzziness of symbolic language", that is, the same symbol has more than two meanings, and sometimes it is uncertain which one it is; Homophones are another aspect.

Language is a symbol system of group identity, and languages of different nationalities present different characteristics and structures. "Words in every culture have their own characteristics, that is, how to use and what to refer to." At present, there are more than 3,000 languages in the world, and there are more than 450 written cultures, which are very different from country to country. Among many variables in cross-cultural advertising communication, the first and most direct obstacle is the gap between language and writing.

Language symbols-definitions

Definition of language symbol 1: A language symbol refers to something that expresses a certain meaning. Wang Qiang, a metaphysical scholar, also said in "An Introduction to Laozi": A husband does not argue his name or his reason.

Definition 2: Language symbols refer to the symbols of oral pronunciation and written words. Meaning refers to expressing meaning in language form. Because language is a system to express meaning, meaning plays a central role in perceiving and memorizing words and sentences, or listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Definition 3: Symbolic metonymy Suoxuer (200 1:66, 67,1kloc-0/) said: "Linguistic symbols refer not to the relationship between things and names but to the relationship between concepts and acoustic images." Language symbol consists of two parts: sound image and concept.

Definition 4: Linguistic symbols refer to existence, and existence, as the accused, should be consistent with the signified by linguistic symbols, but there are differences in fact. This is the relationship between "what should be" and "what should be".

Definition 5: "Speech" is the language material, or language symbol, which is an organic part of artistic conception. Rhetorically speaking, this language symbol has an abstract meaning, which is understood by all members of a certain language group. "Meaning" has two levels, the shallow layer is the semantic meaning relative to language symbols, and the deep layer is the thematic meaning characterized by the poet's perception.

Definition 6: People call this combination of form and meaning a linguistic sign. An important fact of linguistic signs is that there is no necessary connection between the form and meaning of words, but a relationship is established-this is one of the principles of modern linguistics: the non-motivation of words.

Definition 7: Linguistic symbols refer to words that record various languages, such as Chinese characters, English, Japanese, French and Russian. "Written records have audio language, and thinking is carried out through language." Its connection with thinking is indirect through language, that is,' thinking-language-literature'.

Definition 8: Linguistic symbols refer to media rather than content. However, the cognitive activities using symbols can completely distinguish images from objects. When people use symbols to reflect external objects, they can transcend the actual interaction between people and things.

Language is the carrier of culture, and every language symbol contains conventional meaning-they are all related to culture. As far as cultural communication is concerned, both linguistic and nonverbal symbols are acquired, which is "an integral part of the socialization process-that is, symbols and meanings are taught by each culture to its members". For example, the word "dragon" is usually translated into dragon in English. It is a terrible animal, which is completely different from the sacred totem "dragon" in China. Therefore, culture not only teaches us symbols, but also teaches us the meaning represented by symbols. Everyone absorbs the meaning of symbols while absorbing a certain social culture. The difficulty of cross-cultural communication in language symbols lies in "understanding the language of any culture means transcending the vocabulary, grammar and category of this culture." Expand our understanding of culture and broaden our horizons. "

Linguistic symbols-features

Language symbols Language symbols themselves have many characteristics, mainly:

1, the voice of the language. Some of its sounds are combined into a symbolic expression system according to certain rules.

2. The contingency of the combination of semantics and sound in language. Or established, arbitrary.

3. The level of language structure. Language structure is generated and has certain patterns.

From the media point of view, the information dissemination of linguistic symbols and non-linguistic symbols has different characteristics:

First of all, language communication is * * * temporal. Can't be preserved and extended. Nonverbal communication is diachronic, and the whole process can span a large space-time range.

Secondly, the channel of language communication is single and linear. You can only say one sentence at a time, not two at the same time. Nonverbal communication can be multi-channel interaction and superposition.

Linguistic symbols-features

Language sign language realizes its communicative function through symbol system. Compared with other symbols, language symbols have their own characteristics. These functions are:

linear

Language symbols are sounds made by vocal organs. While talking, this series of sounds can always be unfolded in the form of a line, that is, one voice after another appears one after another, as if a chain is linked one after another, and two voices cannot be emitted at the same time. This is the linearity of language symbols.

randomness

It is arbitrary for people in a linguistic social group to use what pronunciation to mark an objective thing at first, so as to refer to it and gain meaning. For example, animals that can make labor tools are called René in Chinese, adem in Uygur and man in English. Therefore, Marx said: "The name of things is completely external to the essence of things." This is the arbitrariness of language symbols.

The arbitrariness of language symbols refers to what kind of phonetic form people use to mark objective things at first, not to people's arbitrary interpretation of semantic content. Semantic content is the reflection of objective things in people's minds, endowed by the characteristics of objective things themselves and the result of people's thinking activities and cognitive activities. If the semantic content is arbitrary and there is no basis for mutual understanding, the exchange of ideas in human society will become impossible, and language will lose its role as a communication tool.

stubborn

What phonetic form people use to mark objective things at first is arbitrary, but once it is established by society, it loses its "freedom" after passing it among people who use the language group, and individuals cannot change it at will. For example, once a Chinese-speaking social group calls "Ren" Ren, individuals cannot change their names at will. In fact, once language is placed in the social field, as the most important communication tool in human society, individuals have no right to change language symbols. You can only refer to things by social names and use them according to the semantics of social understanding, so as to achieve the purpose of communication. In this respect, language is different from artificial and contractual symbols. Language cannot change some rules or transplant some rules through the resolution of the majority. People can only say this and use it according to their existing mother tongue. Therefore, the language symbol of * * * is unchanged.

changeability

However, as long as we compare modern Chinese with ancient Chinese, we will find that there is a qualitative difference between them. For example, modern Chinese is called "eye", but ancient Chinese is called "eye"; Modern Chinese says "playing chess", ancient Chinese says "playing chess", and so on. It can be seen that language symbols have a changeable side.

The invariance and variability of language symbols seem to be a contradictory phenomenon. As a matter of fact, the development process of anything is both relatively static and absolutely changing, which is the universal law of contradictory movement.

genital

The concrete sentences spoken by people are infinite, but the sentence patterns of a language are limited. When a speaker grasps a sentence pattern, he can generate an infinite number of concrete sentences, which is the generativity of language symbols. For example, if a toddler learns the phrase "Xiaoming eats sugar" from his parents, he can generate (create) many concrete sentences, such as "Mom cooks" and "Dad drinks tea". Although the words that generate these sentences are different and have different specific meanings, they are all the same sentence pattern. Simply put, people speak and understand new sentences because they are similar to those they have heard in the past and are generated through categorization.

The various features of language symbols are intricately related, forming a contradictory unity. In this contradictory unity, all elements and aspects of language symbols are opposed to each other, different from each other, interrelated and restricted, forming a network of relationships and a strict system.

systematicness

All units in a language are interrelated and interdependent, forming a system. Language system is a hierarchical system composed of structural units such as phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.

system performance

(1) is embodied in the hierarchical relationship between language structural elements.

Level: upper level, symbol level (morpheme → word → phrase → sentence)

Bottom layer, phonetic layer (phoneme → syllable → grammar)

(2) The mystery of hierarchical structure lies in controlling more with less.

30-40 (phoneme) → 56000 (morpheme) → 400000 (word) → infinity (phrase, sentence).

2. Features of language hierarchy system

First, there is a qualitative difference between the upper and lower levels of language. Second, there are quantitative differences between the language units at the next higher level and the language units at the next lower level. Thirdly, in the lower and upper layers of a language, the language units of the upper layer constitute the language units of the lower layer, which are all generated by certain combination rules. [ 1]

Linguistic symbol-structural evolution

Things in jacques derrida are constantly evolving, and so is the language. The study of language evolution should start with the most essential structure of language, that is, the structure of language symbols. The deeper the microscopic study of language, the more active its vitality and rich forms of expression will be. From structuralism to deconstruction, it is a philosophical fluctuation caused by the change of language symbol structure. Saussure, Lacan, Barthes and Derrida, every linguist is a master of philosophy.

Saussure's symbolic structure is triggered by linguistic symbols. In his view, "language symbols connect not things and names, but concepts and audio images, while audio images are not purely physical things, but psychological impressions of sounds." Language symbols are psychological entities that combine concepts and audio images. Therefore, Saussure chose signified and signifier instead of "concept" and "sound image" as two sides of language symbols. As Barthes said, "after considering the signifier and sememe, form and concept, Saussure finally chose the signifier and the signified. The combination of the two constitutes a symbol ... the signifier surface constitutes the expression surface, and the signified surface constitutes the content surface. "

French psychoanalyst Lacan believes that language is the unconscious behavior of human beings. There are also signifiers and signifiers in his language symbols. However, unlike Saussure, he believes that the signifier is higher than the signified in language symbols, and the signifier has the supreme dominance. Without signifier, the signified cannot be derived. Moreover, he also pointed out that there is no definite signifier, and the combination of signifier and signified is not close, but loose and arbitrary. The floating signifier is below the sliding signifier, which will never reach the speaker's signified state. Language behavior is essentially playing a signifier game. In Lacan's linguistic symbols, the thoughts of "floating signifier" and "sliding signified" had a far-reaching influence on the subsequent deconstruction.

Jacques derrida, the father of deconstruction, is a French philosopher and linguist. In his philology, he created the concept of "alienation", which, in Caleb's words, refers to both the pre-existing "passive" differences as means conditions and the communication behaviors that produce various differences. In fact, Peirce has always believed that explaining a symbol does not mean finding a sojourning meaning for it, not decoding it, but leading to an endless symbol chain. "One symbol produces another symbol, and the decoding process is also an encoding process. Derrida's deconstructive semiotics, after banishing meaning to endless extension, actually turned the connotation of symbols into an empty shell of form, and any signifier process became a signifier game.

From Saussure to Lacan, the meaning of language symbols is vague, but in Barthes' hands, meaning is regarded as a symbolic process. "Symbols are (double-sided) slices of sound, video, etc. Meaning can be understood as a process, an act of combining signifier with signified, and the product of this act is a symbol. " And he also thinks that the meaning is infinite. Therefore, "he gave a new explanation to the extended meaning layer on the basis of the symbol concept of Hjelmslev and others, and thought that if E was used to represent the expression surface of the symbol, C was used to represent the content surface, and R was used to represent the referential relationship between two planes, then the ERC referential relationship system was obtained. If the ERC system becomes a single part of another system, the second system becomes an extension of the first system, that is, the first system ERC can become the expression surface of the Del system and can be written as (ERC)RC. It can be seen that the first system constitutes the direct meaning plane, and the second system constitutes the extended meaning plane. So an extended signified system is a system, and its expression surface itself is composed of a signified system. If it is extended again, the second ERC will become the expression surface of the extended system, and the third ERC will become the extension part of the second extended system. "Symbols can extend infinitely in the process of meaning. To some extent, pronunciation is a symbol of language, language is a symbol of words, words are symbols of literature, words and literature are symbols of culture, culture is a symbol of human beings, and human beings are symbols of the universe.

From Saussure to Lacan, to Barthes, and then to Derrida, it not only reflects the ontological evolution of language symbols, but also reflects the continuous infiltration and role of philosophy of science in linguistics. The symbolic establishment of each concept of linearity, nonlinearity, fractal and chaos contains profound philosophical content. Every change in the ontological meaning of linguistic symbols reflects the process in which philosophy of science plays a role in the field of linguistics. Philosophy of science endows linguistic signs with new meanings. Linguistic signs have made great contributions to the definition and interpretation of the concept of philosophy of science, and are an eternal link between linguistics and philosophy.

Language symbol hierarchy

Morpheme language symbols seem to be a mess of materials, but in fact they have a regular relationship with each other and form a tight system. This system can be understood from two aspects: one is the law of composition, and the other is the law of operation.

The formation law of language system is mainly manifested in the hierarchy of structure, that is to say, language is a layered device, which can be divided into several levels from low to high, or from bottom to top, so that sound and meaning and symbols composed of sound and meaning are in their proper places, but each phenomenon is not isolated, and they are interdependent and mutually restrictive, forming a tight system. We can observe the structural level of language system from bottom to top.

Language symbols are the combination of sound and meaning, so sound and meaning are naturally at the bottom. "Sound" is a chaotic and fuzzy linear sound stream, just like laughing and crying, roaring tigers and howling wolves, and the structural components of sound are inseparable. The same is true of "righteousness", which is chaotic and vague and can't distinguish the boundaries of meaning. The phonemes of a language are limited, generally only thirty or forty, but these limited phonemes are combined according to certain rules to form pronunciation, which can basically meet the needs of meaning expression and form language symbols. Phoneme itself has no meaning, but it has the function of distinguishing meaning; Without the package of sound, meaning cannot be displayed and expressed. Phoneme is at the lower level of the language system and has one-sided characteristics because it has no meaning. Phoneme can be combined with certain meanings to form symbols and symbol sequences of language, which is the upper layer of language. This level can be divided into several levels: the first level is morpheme, which is the smallest structural unit of the combination of sound and meaning in the language, the second level is words composed of morphemes, and the third level is sentences composed of words; Words and sentences are sequences of symbols.

Language symbols-popular network language symbols

Rich network language symbol "network language symbol" is a symbol form used in the field of network communication through computers. It is closely related to the communication of ordinary daily life and has obvious differences. Generally speaking, generalized network language symbols can be roughly divided into three categories: one is technical terms related to network technology, such as mouse, hardware, software, virus, broadband and so on. Second, special terms related to network activities, such as netizens, Internet cafes, short messages, e-commerce and so on. 3. Words and symbols commonly used by netizens in chat rooms and BBS, such as girls and prawns. The first two can be collectively referred to as "network terms". The third category is network language symbols in a narrow sense, namely "network idioms".

Language Symbols —— Four Principles of Gordon's Speech

The linguistic symbol Gertons believes that speaking is a cooperative behavior with certain goals and directions. To cooperate effectively, four cooperative principles must be followed:

1, quantity standard. Not enough, not clear, not too much.

2. Quality standards. The speaker is confident that the content is true, and can't talk nonsense or cheat.

3. Relevant guidelines. Speak around the theme, don't say anything irrelevant to the theme and the state at that time.

4. Mode standard. Speak clearly and accurately, not vaguely. [2]