Arbitrariness in Language: Arbitrary Words in Different Languages Fabiane Vetturazzi1

An action, decision, rule which does not seem to be based on a reason, system or plan is considered arbitrary2 (Oxford Dictionary). Arbitrariness can be recognized in many different fields and situations, including in the language: words, orders, gestures, meanings. The occurrence of arbitrariness is recognized in all languages in the world. It is a general rule which is applicable to the formation of words. Even though all languages share this regulation, the meanings of words generally do not coincide. However, there are words which coincide in spelling and/or pronunciation, but happen in different environments. This phenomena creates an interesting variety of meanings to the same word in different languages, and the confrontation of them can result in a funny mix of cultural knowledge with no background of any former language. According to Crabtree and Powers, we consider a word as arbitrary when: meaning is not any ways predictable from the form, nor is the form dictated by the meaning (226). This arbitrariness is demonstrated by cases of cross-linguistics, when the words are differently written in different languages, but share the same meaning, or share the same pronunciation, but have no common meaning. Considering the second reproduction of cross-linguistics, it is possible to encounter examples of pairs of words which have different meanings in the same language spoken in different places / countries; in different languages which share the same background; or even in languages with absolutely no relations.

Graduated in Language and Linguistics Portuguese and English by UCS (Universidade de Caxias do Sul). Essay developed to LING100 University of Regina Spring 2009. 2 Advanced Oxford Learners Dictionary CD-rom.

Examining English words spoken in the United States and England, we can find an enormous list of words or expressions which have completely divergent meanings. Brew, for example, means beer in United States (and a specific beer in Australia), and tea or coffee in England, mainly in the Northern region. Obviously, there are more meanings, but for our purposes, we will consider these two that reproduce why it would be funny for a lady to ask for a brew in a coffee shop in Australia, for example. This universal grammar rule of arbitrariness involves the necessity of finding new expression to nominate things and actions, mainly. According to the research of Michael Gasser, from Indiana University, vocabulary would be much poorer if there were only iconic words, because the number of words and expression could not vary as much as it does by the use of arbitrary ones. Following a similar peculiarity between the Portuguese from Brazil and from Portugal, we can analyze the word putos which means children in Portugal, and homosexuals in the south of Brazil and player in the rest of the country. Then, imagine for a Portuguese to go to Brazil and call a group of friends putos, it will get him into big trouble. Furthermore, this choice of arbitrary expressions to denote something can occur in different languages that derive from the same origins. Namely, considering Spanish and Portuguese, both deriving from Latin, there are terms which have similar but not the same meanings in each of them: gracioso means cute and kind at the same time in Portuguese (from Brazil), and in Spanish, differently it means funny. Here, the term gracioso derives from graa (Portuguese)/ gracia (Spanish), what means that the adjectives are not arbitrary, though, the noun which they derive from is, and follows the different meaning in each language. Once more, if someone calls the other a man gracioso, the expression will sound as a cute guy (gay), instead of funny. Taking into consideration languages from Anglo-Saxon origins, the word

arm that means a part of the body in English, will be the adjective poor in German, for instance. Here, it is funny for a German class student to think about his arm as a poor part of his body! Moreover, we can compare arbitrary terms that derive from totally different environments like Latin languages and Asian languages. The meanings vary as they did previously in closer domains, however it seems even more curious because the creation of different meanings for the same group of sounds develops a deeper thinking about what made them relate the symbols/ sounds with that determined object or attitude. We are able to discover this interesting fact relating the meanings given to the word oi in Portuguese (Br.), in Japanese and in Korean. In Brazil, the word means a greeting: hello, but in Japanese, it is an interjection, hey, and in Korean, it means a vegetable: cucumber. Consequently, imagine the situation of Korean, Japanese and Brazilian girls living together: when the Brazilian says hello in her mother language, the Korean understands cucumber and the Japanese thinks she is calling her to attention. This completely unexpected situation make people think about how interesting the power of language is, and how the mechanism used to minimize ambiguity and homophony is able to give us a wide variation of form / meaning. All these selections of language distinguish human language from other forms of communication (229). The enrichment brought by the possibility of using any group of sounds to nominate something opened a wide range of homophones in different languages. This phenomena is absolutely interesting and can develop a study correlating different languages. The amount of data available only depends on research and interest. This is a funny way of learning how human languages are sometimes correlated by something that overlaps the simple iconicity,

and reflects how rich and powerful the human brain and its capacity of learning and distinguishing different words for different environments / languages (or play with them) is.

Works Cited Arbitrary. Def.1. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary. CD-ROM. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. Gasser, Michael (2004). The Origins of Arbitrariness in Language. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
http://www.cogsci.northwestern.edu/cogsci2004/papers/paper574.pdf.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=mfS3GlTLAUMC&pg=PA226&dq=arbitrariness+of+language#PPA226,M 1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10315681/List-of-Words-Having-Different-Meanings-in-British-andAmerican-English