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. 2010 Dec 31:1:227.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00227. eCollection 2010.

Iconicity as a general property of language: evidence from spoken and signed languages

Pamela Perniss  1 , Robin L Thompson, Gabriella Vigliocco
Affiliations

Iconicity as a general property of language: evidence from spoken and signed languages

Pamela Perniss et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Current views about language are dominated by the idea of arbitrary connections between linguistic form and meaning. However, if we look beyond the more familiar Indo-European languages and also include both spoken and signed language modalities, we find that motivated, iconic form-meaning mappings are, in fact, pervasive in language. In this paper, we review the different types of iconic mappings that characterize languages in both modalities, including the predominantly visually iconic mappings found in signed languages. Having shown that iconic mapping are present across languages, we then proceed to review evidence showing that language users (signers and speakers) exploit iconicity in language processing and language acquisition. While not discounting the presence and importance of arbitrariness in language, we put forward the idea that iconicity need also be recognized as a general property of language, which may serve the function of reducing the gap between linguistic form and conceptual representation to allow the language system to "hook up" to motor, perceptual, and affective experience.

Keywords: iconicity; sound-symbolism; spoken and signed languages.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of iconic signs meaning cry (A) and aeroplane (B) and non-iconic signs meaning battery (C) and afternoon (D) in BSL.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Different forms of iconically-motivated ASL aspectual morphemes (durational, continual and exhaustive) both singly (B, C) and in combination (D– F). Picture (A) indicates the uninflected form. Reprinted with permission from Poizner et al. (1987).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The signs meaning cat in ASL (A) and BSL (B).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Still image for BSL signs cat (upper left) and bicycle (upper right). Pictures reflecting the iconic property saliently appear in the middle panels; pictures in which the iconic property is not salient appear in the lower panels. The sign for cat, indicating the whiskers on a cat's face, depicts a typical feature, while the sign for bicycle, showing the pedals (moving in a circular motion) does not.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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