NP Re: human dog metaphors (3)

[CLAY JONATHAN D]

Excellent post IMHO from Thomas Eckhardrt in general, especially on 
metaphor, but:
> And I'd like to add that I find his
> idea of arbitrariness highly debatable, because I believe that there are
> much more words of onomatopoetical origin in language than Saussure's theory
> would allow for. This is speculation, yes.

The arbitrary nature of the sign is, of course, debatable, but not 
necessarily from the concept of onomatopoeia, which, *it can be 
argued*, is ultimately as conventional as any other sign. There is a 
lot on this with particular  reference to Joyce in _Peculiar 
Language_ by Derek Attridge. I could perhaps dig out specifics if 
anyone was interested, but I'm going to be very busy these next 
couple of weeks, on jury service in fact. 

"Bewildering spring, and by the Auvezere
Poppies and day's eyes in the green email
Rose over us"      
              "Near Perigord", Ezra Pound

Jon Clay - [cj833 at greenwich.ac.uk]