Answer to Question #74197 in English for Charles

Question

In what way is language arbitrary.

Answer 1

Language is arbitrary due to the specific historical factor of its creation and evolution. In essence, the structure of the significant elements of the language has no connection to their meaning. Words do not accurately correlate with the notion they have. For example, the phonetic and morphological features of the word cat have nothing in common with the animal that they denote. Thus, the arbitrariness of the language reveals no natural aspect of the creation of its elements; instead, it has the particular historical patterns of its development.