Note sur le dogme de l’arbitraire du signe et ses possibles motivations idéologiques

The interest aroused among linguists by the principle of the arbitrary nature of the sign/symbol has been such as to occlude the importance of another principle insistently formulated by Saussure, namely the motivation of the system. That principle if accepted accounts not only for grammatical structures but also for a large proportion of associative relations (known in this context as semiotic connotations) and hence opens up an immense field of linguistic productions excluded (as «anomalous») by linguistics (poetry, puns, etc.). The cause of this exclusion is the excessive importance that has been attributed to the single function of communication, as a result of which language is viewed as a simple means of transmitting information, both ideological concepts.