Iconicity View of Language

1. Iconicity View of Language

2. Outlines: • 1. History of Iconicity • 2. Concepts of Iconicity in Language • 3. Classification of Iconicity • 4. Application of Iconicity to English Teaching • 5. Conclusion

3. Part 1 History Of Iconicity

4. 1.1 Nominalism VS Realism VS

5. Nominalism (also called the Conventionists) held the view that the names and signs were conventional results of cultural and social development to be used to signify things, and there was no internal relationship between signs and what they referred to; while Realism (also called Naturalism) thought that there existed an essential relationship between words and their signified, and words were nothing but the natural names we give to reality or things in the world.

6. In the year 1916, F. D Saussure published his famous book Course in General Linguistics in which he put forward the notion of arbitrariness. • Later, transformative-generative linguistics represented by Noam Chomsky praised the conceptof arbitrariness highly. Since then the concept ofarbitrariness became the primary principle oflanguage, and it dominated linguistics for almost halfa century.

7. In 1965, R. Jakobson, for the first time, put forward a real challenge to arbitrariness in his famous paper “Quest for the Essence of Language”. From Peirce’s definition of “icon”, “index” and “symbol”, the concept of iconicity becomes more and more clear and exact. 1992, another symposium on “Iconicity in Language” was held in University of Rome and also after two years, Raffaele Simone brought together 14 papers on various aspects of iconicity in language. John Haiman HaimanIconicity in Syntax ,1985

8. Besides onomatopoeia, hieroglyphsand associative compounds, sign language is another evidence of the theory of iconicity. Through diachronic study of sign languages in various countries, linguists find that they are highly iconic in the beginning. For example, ASL (American Sign Language) is quite similar to English grammar structure (Carroll, 1999:34), which gives a convincing support of iconicity.

9. (1) the theory of iconicity has become one of the important branches of cognitive linguistics, and it is the inevitable result of a deeper understanding of language, psychology and cognition. • (2) Language is motivated in nature. Only 9% of English words are totally arbitrary. ( 1996:61) So it is incorrect that arbitrariness is the primary and foremost principle of language. • (3) The linearity character of language determines that language cannot be exactly similar to reality like painting. Arbitrariness is the highly development of abstract ideation. Both iconicity and arbitrariness exist in language, and we should treat these two aspects objectively.

10. Hu Zhuanglin(1996) said, “view of language arbitrariness was dominant in a rahter long period. Today, more emphasis is on language non-arbitrariness.” He pointed out, “The general tendency of language iconicity is undeniable.”

11. Shen Jiaxuan(1993),in his article On syntactic Iconicity， also introduced and commented on the related research abroad，“ At present, iconicity is a hot topic when talking about syntax in terms of cognitive linguistics.” • J Du Wenli (1996) discussed iconicity of English at the level of vocabulary and syntax • Moreover , Wang Yin (2003)， Zhang Min(1997)， Yan Chensong (1997)，etc. also wrote articles on iconicity， especially on syntactic iconicity.

12. Part 2:Concepts of Iconicity in Language

13. 2.1 From semiotic point of view2.2 From cognitive point of view2.3 From functional point of view

14. 2.1 From semiotic point of view Charles S. Peircean definition (semiotic theory) • The semiotic notion of iconicity originates with the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. Iconicity is a relation between a sign and its object in which the form of the sign recapitulatesthe object in some way. It is the resemblance between the signifier (sound pattern or written form) and the signified (concept or meaning), for examples onomatopoeia and interjections.

15. e.g. signifier miaow (direct likeness in sound/word-shape) signified "sound made by cat"

16. Charles S. Pierce’s “Semiotic Triangle” (1932) (http://www.rdillman.com/HFCL/TUTOR/Semiotics/sem1.html)

17. Charles S. Pierce’s “Semiotic Triangle” CONCEPT perception experience SIGN convention OBJECT Each of the lines represents a two-way negotiation.

18. Pierce’s model explains how communication (convention, experience, perception) works as an interactive process in the continual changing (or, renegotiation) of meaning. • "...in the syntax of every language there are logical icons of the kind that are aided by conventional rules..." (Peirce,1940)

19. 2.2 From cognitive point of view • Cognitive linguists view inconicity as the similarity between linguistic form and cognitive category or cognitive model.It deals with the relationship between language and mind.

20. Cognitive linguists asserted that our experience about the world and how we observe and explain the language can make an effect on language, which contributes significantly to iconicity study. It provides powerful evidence for the iconic nature of language and challenges the arbitrary nature of language strongly. Cognitive linguistics argues that language is not arbitrarily created, but it is constrained by cognitive environment and social factors. Linguistic symbols, on the basic level category, to some extent, are arbitrary, or some have lost motivation, but during the process of constituting larger units (phrases and sentences), linguistic interrelationship is obvious.

21. "instead of comparing words and grammatical structures with real objects and events, we may now compare them with our categories and cognitive models of the real world,and this makes the comparison much easier and much plausible."(Ungerer & Schmid, 2001)

22. The intuition behind iconicity is quite simple: the structure of language reflects in some way the structure of experience, that is to say, the structure of the world, including the perspective imposed on the world by the speaker. The structure of language is therefore motivated or explained by the structure of experience to the extent that the two match. (Croft, 1990)

23. 2.3 From functional point of view • Linguistic structure reflects in some way the structure of experience (e.g., Haiman 1983, Croft 2001, etc.) • According to Cognitive Grammar, language structures may be motivated and shaped by human conceptual knowledge, which, in turn, is related to human physical experience.

24. Haiman characterizes iconicity as “a set ofsigns whose meaning in some crucial wayresembles their form”. Fromkin (2004:584) defines iconicity as “a non- arbitrary relationbetween form and meaning in which the form bears a resemblance to its meaning”. Hopper(2005:27) regards iconicity as “the property of similarity between one item and another”.

25. Part 3 Classification of Iconicity

26. 3.1 Pierce’s classification of icons • According to Peirce, only one type of sign, which he calls ‘symbol’, has an arbitrary form/meanning relationship (Saussure’s standard interpretion ). • The other major category of sign, for which a certain similarity between form and meaning (i.e. real objects) can be claimed, is called ‘icon’. • (F. Ungerer & H. J. Schmid: 2001, 250-251 )

27. Three types of icons (1)The imagic icon: the simplest one, in which the form is physically similar in some way to the meaning, imitative in some general sense (e.g. onomatopoeia and sound-symbolism). (2)The diagrammatic icon: In Peirce’s words, diagrams are icons “which represent the relations…of the parts of one thing by analogous relations in their own parts…many diagrams resemble their objects not all in looks;

28. it is only in respect to the relations of their parts that their likeness consists.” 3) Metaphor: in the third type, which was called metaphor, likeness rests on the parallelism between signs. (Hookway,1985:105-107)

29. 3.2 Haiman’s classification of icons On the basis of Peirce, Haiman distinguishes two types of icons: imagic and diagrammatic. He defines them as (Haiman, 1980:515): 1) An iconic imageis a single sign which resembles its referent with respect to some (not necessarily visual) characteristic: commonly cited examples are photographs, statues, program music—and, in language, onomatopoeic words

30. 2) An iconic diagramis a systematic arrangement of signs, none of which necessarily resembles its referent, but whose relationships to each other mirror the relationships of their referents.

31. 3.3Haiman’s furtherclassification ofdiagrammatic Then he further distinguishes two kinds of diagrammatic iconicity: isomorphism and motivation. 1) Isomorphism is an icon of “one-to-one correspondence between the signans and the signatum, whether this be a single word or a grammatical construction”. He assumes that different forms must have different meanings and it is a bi-unique correspondence between the signans and the signatum.

32. 2) Motivationrefers to “a perceived similarity between the structure of language and the structure of the concepts that it represents” (Haiman,1985:71). That is, the structure of language directly reflects the structure of the concepts.

33. Today, the three subclasses of the icon are well known to specialists in linguistic iconicity and thus there are three types of iconicity: (1) imagic iconicity, (2) diagrammatic iconicity (3) metaphorical iconicity (Hopper 2005:2). Fischer and Nanny have offered an overview in this respect.

34. Part 4 Application of Iconicity to English Teaching

35. 4.1 The Application of Iconicity to Vocabulary Teaching 4.1.1 Iconicity Related to Vocabulary: Ⅰ. Etymological Iconicity: Ⅱ. Phonological Iconicity: means there are some natural relations between the pronunciation of a word and its reference. (onomatopoeia) Ⅲ. Morphological Iconicity: the similarity between the spelling of a word and its reference or word-building and its reference. (“zigzag”, “wave”, “hedge”, “SOS”)

36. Ⅳ. Grammatical Iconicity: the similarity between word meaning and grammatical markedness. ( “cars”, “walked”) Ⅴ. Sequencing Iconicity: language is the mirror of our mind, the reflection of our cognition mechanism, and linguistic symbols are arranged in the order similar to our mind and cultural concepts. (“from dawn to dusk”, “from day to night”, “from head to foot”, “from birth to death”) Ⅵ. Metaphorical Iconicity: refers to the indirect similarity between words and their references. (“green horn”)

37. 4.1.2 Enlightenment on English Vocabulary Teaching ① situational teaching method (“out-herods”, “aboveboard”) ② acoustic image memory: songs or rhymes; sound association ③ visual memory (“baggage”) ④ components memory: root, prefix and suffix ⑤ associated teaching method: the aspects of phonology, semantics and metaphor, etc.

38. 4.2 The Application of Iconicity to Grammar Teaching

39. 4.2.1 Principles in syntactic iconicity: Ⅰ. The Principle of Distance Iconicity: the grammar of a language might formally represent the conceptual distance between entities by physically separating the linguistic elements that encode those entities. Ⅱ. The Principle of Sequence Iconicity: the sequence of linguistic form or text structure is a reflection of the conceptual or experiential order the form or text structure represents. Ⅲ. The Principle of Quantity Iconicity: more linguistic signs employed suggest more conceptual meanings conveyed.

40. Ⅳ. The Principle of Markedness Iconicity: the order from unmarkedness to markednesss which corresponds to the natural order of cognition. Ⅴ. The Principle of Asymmetry Iconicity: the important information in human cognition is always put in the prominent place of a sentence, which is quite similar to the relation between figure and ground, and theme and rheme.

41. 4.2.2 Enlightenment on English Grammar Teaching ⑴ The Expression of Coordination (“Mary’s and Henry’s sheep” & “Mary and Henry’s sheep” theprinciple of distance iconicity “She went to Beijing, New York, and London” & “She went to Beijing, then to New York, and then to London” the principle of quantity iconicity) ⑵ The Ordering of Pre-Modifying: (definite word + subjective adjective + size + shape + old or new + color + nationality + material + use + head word the principle of distance iconicity) ⑶ The Ordering of Clauses: (“He shot and killed her” & * “He killed and shot her” the Principle of Sequence Iconicity) ⑷ Sentence Patterns: (“subject + predicate + object” theprinciple of distance iconicity; OSV, CsSVtheprinciple of topic iconicity).

42. ⑸ Relation between Verbs and Objects: “hear somebody or something” & “hear of somebody or something” “help somebody do something” and “help somebody to do something” theprinciple of distance iconicity) ⑹ Connotation: (“boys are boys” & “war is war” theprinciple of quantity iconicity) ⑺ The Difference between Gerund and Infinitive: I should like to take a holiday & I like spending Sunday mornings in bed the principle of distance iconicity) ⑻ Application to Other Aspects: restrictive and non-restrictive clauses; distinctions between similar sentences (否定前移）; sequence of the tense and aspect of aPredicate (have been V.-ing) the principle of distance iconicity

43. Conclusion: Shen Jiaxuan (1993: 14) claims that language is iconic in that linguistic structure, especially syntactic structure or even syntactic rules are non-arbitrary, and motivated, i.e., there is some natural relation between syntactic structure and conceptual structure.