1) Arbitrariness:

Definition:
According to the definition of David Crystal in A dictionary of phonetics and
linguistics arbitrariness is a suggested defining property of human language
whereby linguistic forms are said to lack any physical correspondence with the
entities in the world to which they refer. The relationship between sound and
meaning is said to be arbitrary or conventional as classical tradition puts it. By
contrast some words in a language may be partly or wholly iconic i.e. they do
reflect properties of the non-linguistic world e.g. onomatopoetic expressions
such as splash, murmur, mumble.

According to George Yule in the study of language,
The linguistic forms have no natural or iconic relationship with that four
legged barking object out in the world. Recognizing this general fact about
language leads us to conclude that a property of linguistic signs is their arbitrary
relationship with the object they are used to indicate. The forms of human
language demonstrate a property called arbitrariness: they do not in any way, fit
the object they denote.
So we can conclude that the symbols used in a language are arbitrary i.e. there is no
natural connection between linguistic form and its meanings. Any concept of
grammatical rule can be mapped onto a symbol. There is no direct link between form
and meaning, the signal and the message. Or in Saussures view we can say that there
is no connection between the signifier and the signified. It implies that the signifier is
unmotivated in relation to its signified.


Signs and symbols:
For Saussure the traditional use of the word symbol to designate the linguistic sign is
unacceptable. It is the characteristic of symbols that they are never entirely arbitrary.
They show a visage of natural connection between the signifier and signified.

Iconic onomatopoeic words:
These are the words in language which echo the sounds of objects or activities. In
English for example the words cuckoo, crash, whirrs are onomatopoeic words.
Onomatopoeic and exclamatory are part of natural sound theory.
But these onomatopoeic words are rare in majority of languages. Animal signaling are
onomatopoeic because the set of signals used in their communication is finite. Many of
these forms are used in specific situations and at particular times.

Merits and demerits of arbitrariness:

Merits:
1) Arbitrariness increases the flexibility and versatility of communication system.
2) The extension of vocabulary is not constrained by matching by form and
meaning.
3) For Chomsky, human beings are genetically arbitrary general principles which
determine the general structure of all languages.

Demerits:
1) Arbitrariness puts a considerable burden upon memory in the language
acquisition process.
2) Arbitrariness makes the signal more difficult to interpret for one who does not
know the system.
3) In chomskyean hypothesis a good deal of principles including operation of the
structure dependency in UG is also arbitrary.