Language is arbitrary By the arbitrariness of language we mean that there is no inherent or logical relation or similarity between any given feature of language and its meaning. That is entirely arbitrary, that there is no direct, necessary connection between the nature of things or ideas the language deals with, and the linguistic units are combinations by which these things or ideas are expressed. There is no reason why the four_legged domestic animals should be called dog in English, kutta in Hindi, kukkur in sanskrit, nai in kannada, kukka in Telugu, kukur in Bengali, chien in French, hund in German, kutra in Marathi, kutro in Gujrati, kalb in Arabic and so on. That those particular words rather than any other are used in these different languages, is merely an incident of linguistic history. Onomatopoeia, the use of words that imitate the sounds of their referents, for example, buzz, hiss, hum, bang in English and kal_kal in Hindi, may seem to invalidate this statement, but such words are comparatively few in different Languages, and the accuracy of the limitation depends on the sounds available in the language. Furthermore, these are at variation in different languages of the world, and have no uniformity.
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