earticle

영어

Binary oppositions have long been recognized as a fundamental organizing principle in both human cognition and linguistic structure. This research thus examines the binary oppositions in language, with particular focus on the interplay between arbitrariness and iconicity as exemplified in Vietnamese phonesthemes. While their existence has been widely attested in Western languages, their presence and functions in Vietnamese remain underexplored. The purpose of the research is twofold: (i) to strengthen the hypothesis that Vietnamese, particularly its modal particles and related non-lexical items, displays phonesthemic behavior at both segmental and suprasegmental levels and (ii) to identify methodological challenges in isolating and analyzing phonesthemes, particularly in tonal languages such as Vietnamese. Using a qualitatively inductive approach framed by Hegel’s(1807/2018) and Derrida’s(1967/2016) philosophy, the paper partly supports that phonesthemes are sites of dynamic equilibrium and exist in a continuum between arbitrariness and iconicity. The investigation thus contributes not only to descriptive knowledge of Vietnamese phonesthemes but also to theoretical discussions of how binary pairs manifest in discourse through such phonesthemes.