On theArbitrariness and Iconicity of Linguistic Signs

There is a controversy about the nature of linguistic signs:arbitrariness or iconicity in the academia.Since the cognitive linguistics sprang up,some linguists have asserted that iconicity is the most fundamental feature of linguistic signs.Criticisms about arbitrariness increase.In fact,saussure's arbitrariness and peirce's iconicity are based on different theories with different definitions of linguistic signs,putting emphasis on different levels of language.Thus,there is no comparability between them.