Synonym of relative; meaning such that misses internal connection or natural fundament. According to Ferdinand de Saussure and a number of other semioticians, influenced by him, the sign exists on the basis of an arbitrary connection between, for example, sound and concept.
This dependence is relative – unmotivated.
There is no real connection between the sound image and its correlative concept.
The phoneme “boy” doesn’t resemble in any way its sememe (meaning). Saussure admits that some signs do have motivation. For example scales as a symbol of justice. Still, he overlooks the significance of such signs.
