Roland Posner
Iconism in natural languages
Jürgen Pesot
Iconism in phonology
Willi Mayerthaler
Iconism in morphology
John R. Ross
Iconism in phraseology. The tone defines the meaning
Roland Posner
Iconism in syntax.
The natural position of the attribute
Enclosure
Jürgen Pesot
Phonetic reproduction
Projects
Roland Posner
Semiotics handbook
Martin Krampen, Hartmut Espe and Klaus Schreiber
The multidimensionality of iconic signs.
Variance analytical investigations
Literary report
Monica Rector
Semiotics in Latin America
Günter Bentele
Film semiotics in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Development and current positions
Study
Annemarie Lange-Seidl
Semiotics in German universities
Iconism in phonology
Jürgen Pesot, Université du Québec à Rimouski
Summary. The purpose of this article is to familiarize the reader with a new,
semiotically based, way of accounting for an old series of phenomena which have
now come to the attention of linguists as instances of linguistic iconism. In
phonology, icons are forms which are said to be similar to the "thing
meant"
(object). This similarity, considered as an anomalous constraint from a
linguistic point of view, is shown to go along with certain other anomalies,
such as paradigmatic and syntagmatic simplicity mirroring semantic simplicity.
As a case study of this issue, the author scrutinizes lexical reduplication,
with data from Hindi. Notions like onomatopoetics, phonetic play, and sound
symbolism are then discussed with respect to iconicity. Finally, the author
outlines what he believes to be the lower threshold of iconism in phonology:
the imaginal-indexical distortion of speech by non-linguistic vocalization and
articulation.
Iconism in morphology
Willi Mayerthaler, University of Klagenfurt
Summary. This essay analyses linguistic signs with respect to the similarities
existing between certain cognitive semantic categories and the way these
categories are encoded in a natural language. The author argues that linguistic
signs, while being lexically arbitrary, are, nevertheless, constructed
iconically at the level of morphology. The encoded categories are deduced from
the structure of the communication situation. By comparing morphological
encodings in a variety of languages the author shows that non-iconic
constructions are most often due to borrowing or to phonological change and
tend to be unstable.
Iconism in phraseology.
The tone defines the meaning
John R. Ross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Summary. This article addresses the central linguistic question: What is the
relation between the structure of language and world view? In particular, what
are the rules specifying which elements occur first in freezes, i.e.,
expressions with fixed order like hot and cold or gin and tonic? The basic
principle underlying freezes is suggested by the metaphor: the more sound, the
more meaning; semantic unmarkedness is equated with phonetic inaudibility. Thus
freezes begin with the semantically less marked and/or phonetically less
complex word. As data from 93 languages indicate, such a principle works
especially well for pairs of short words and for basic semantic contrasts. The
nature of this interesting constraint is captured by three principles of
linguistic myopia.
Iconism in syntax
The natural position of the attribute
Roland Posner, Technical University Berlin
Summary. Iconic sign relations are, on the one hand, encoded in the language
system and, on the other, continually produced in language use. In this essay,
a rule of iconic text interpretation is postulated that takes account of
iconicity in language use. The question is then posed whether the existing
restrictions on the order of attributes within complex noun phrases are due to
iconic text interpretation. This is shown not to be the case. Such restrictions
are part of the language system. They are motivated primarily by pragmatic
principles, but are supported secondarily by the iconic relations ensuing
between nouniness and proximity to the noun and between substantiality and
proximity to the noun. Thus, iconicity in syntax reveals itself to be a
phenomenon of secondary motivation.
