O PRIRODI JEZIČKOG ZNAKA U JEDNOM KAZIVANJU IZ “MESNEVIJE"
ABOUT THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE SIGN IN A TELLING FROM "MATHNAWI"

Author(s): Munir Drkić
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Other Language Literature
Published by: Naučnoistraživački institut »Ibn Sina«
Keywords: linguistic sign; signifier; signified; arbitrariness; speaker of a hundred languages; one who knows a secret; communicational competence;
Summary/Abstract: The theme of this paper is a tale from Mathnawi about four speakers of different languages who argued about the name for grapes. The author wishes to present how this tale could be useful in solving the question of the nature of a linguistic sign, a problem that incited many debates and discussions in the 20th century, and even some of the most important linguists such as Saussure and Jakobson dealt with it. Rumi, in a practical manner, shows how for most speakers the connection about what would be later called in linguistics a signifier and signified is not arbitrary, but natural and the only possible one. After all, that is the reason for misunderstanding of speakers who are not able to listen to each other.

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