Abstract
The recent applications of the notion of the motivated sign in geographical linguistics (cf. the commentaries on the maps of «Atlas Linguarum Europae» and «Atlas Linguistic Roman») fail to consider Karl Jaberg, who in numerous empirical studies revised the relation theoretically defined by Saussure between significatum and significans. After investigating thoroughly a wide Romance and non-Romance dialectal documentation, Jaberg came to the conclusion that a linguistic sign is motivated only if the speakers' attitudes towards the linguistic system and the possibilities the significans has to produce new significatum were duly taken into account. The second part of the article recalls Jaberg's reservations about the excessive ease with certain metaphorical expressions found in familiar language are explained by referring to the supernatural
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