Abstract
The article examines the debate on the arbitrariness of linguistic sign, which took place between 1939-1949, mostly in Acta linguistica in Copenhagen, and was provoked by Émile Benveniste's article "The nature of the linguistic sign" (1939). I deal with Benveniste's three main statements: (1) that the thesis of the arbitrariness of linguistic sign is in contradiction with the formality of language, (2) that the relationship between signifiant and signifié is in fact necessary, and (3) the consequences of the latter for the radical relativity of linguistic values.
These three positions are contextualized and examined in the frame of the Copenhagen School's conception of linguistics and its place among other sciences. I then observe how the problem was formulated by Benveniste's predecessors E.
Pichon and J. Damourette and examine the debate occurring after the publication of Benveniste's article, which, in addition to the editors of the Course in General Linguistics, included E.
Lerch, A. Gardiner.
E. Buyssens, N.
Ege and A. Martinet.
Their positions and criticisms are summarized and evaluated in the scope of the contemporary state of research based on the manuscript sources for the Course.