Displacement
Humans can refer to past and
future time. This property of
human language is called
displacement. It allows language
users to talk about things and
events not present in the
immediate environment.
Arbitrariness
The linguistic form has no natural
or “iconic” relationship with that
hairy four-legged barking object
out in the world. This aspect of
the relationship between linguistic
signs and objects in the world is
described as arbitrariness.