... were talking about. That is because the words have no connection to the animal in question. How then are the words related to the animal, or signified? According to Saussure, all signs are arbitrary, and are wholly conventional associations that have been determined by social rule, or semiotic convention. At first you could argue that this absolute statement is flawed, especially in relation to onomatopoeic words. However, if you look in detail at specific languages you will see some differences. For example, in English a cock's crowing is represented in speech and writing as cock-a-doodle-doo, whilst in French it is cocorico. In my humble opinion it is unlikely that cock's in Britain and France sound different. It can also be said that noises have no significance in and of themselves. A noise is just a noise, just as a piece of wood hitting another is just that, one piece ...

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