Iconicity in Language Processing and Acquisition
What Signed Languages Reveal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4988970 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robin L Thompson (0000-0001-5872-910X, UCL Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 9 |
| Pages | 603-616 |
| Publication date | 2011-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language and Linguistics Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1749-818X • E-ISSN: 1749-818X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2011.00301.x |
| OpenAlex | W2144578321 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 37 |
That linguistic form should be arbitrarily linked to meaning is generally taken as a fundamental feature of language. However, this paper explores the role of iconicity, or non-arbitrary form-meaning mappings for both language processing and language acquisition. Evidence from signed language research is presented showing that sign language users exploit iconicity in language processing. Further, iconicity may be at work in language acquisition serving to bridge the gap between conceptual representations and linguistic form. Signed languages are taken as a starting point since they tend to encode a higher degree of iconic form-meaning mappings than is found for spoken languages, but the findings are more broadly applicable. Specifically, the emerging evidence argues against the dominant view that connections between linguistic form and meaning need be primarily arbitrary. Instead both arbitrariness and iconicity have a role to play in language
Iconicity · Linguistics · Sign language · Computer Science · Hand Gesture Recognition Systems · Hearing Impairment and Communication · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology
Iconicity and interpretability in language emergence
Iconicity as structure mapping
What is iconicity
Iconicity ratings really do measure iconicity, and they open a new window onto the nature of language
Acquisition of Sign Languages
First-language acquisition in a multimodal language framework
Impacts of Visual Sonority and Handshape Markedness on Second Language Learning of American Sign Language
Iconicity in Word Learning and Beyond
Interembodiment and language
Perspectives on Classifier Constructions in Sign Languages
Language from the Body
Sign Language and Linguistic Universals
Symbolic Gesturing in Normal Infants
Variability in Early Communicative Development
Sound symbolism facilitates early verb learning
Semantic feature production norms for a large set of living and nonliving things
Grounding conceptual knowledge in modality-specific systems
Perceptual symbol systems
Infant vocabulary development assessed with a British communicative development inventory
The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory
The Development of the Ability to Recognize the Meaning of Iconic Signs
The Role of Sign Phonology and Iconicity During Sign Processing
The Acquisition of Sign Language
Iconicity in Syntax
Iconicity as a General Property of Language
Out of the Hands of Babes
Arbitrariness and Iconicity
The Iconicity of Grammar
| Citations per year | 0.75 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |