Linguistic Circle

Speaker: Calle Börstell (Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University)

Title: Isn't it iconic? (Don't you think?)

Abstract: The view that language – or, rather, the linguistic sign – is arbitrary has been taught on Day 1 in linguistics classes for at least a century. More recent work has shown that this claim needs to be modified: first, the inclusion of signed languages in linguistic research has uncovered modality differences in how iconicity may be present in linguistic structure; second, widening the definition on what constitutes language (as opposed to marginal or peripheral phenomena) and looking at more diverse samples of languages have uncovered more examples of iconic forms and structures (direct and schematic) also among spoken languages; third, cross-linguistic and cross-modal work has shown that iconicity is a key component in the evolution and acquisition of languages. In this presentation, I will be discussing how iconicity permeates language – especially as applied to my own work on signed languages – on all levels of linguistic structure, in ways that pertain to both direct depictive iconicity in form–meaning mappings, but also structures that involves schematic analogy mappings between a range of semiotic resources (actions, objects, writing, symbols, speech, and sound) and their linguistic encoding. Finally, I will also discuss how iconicity in itself is not an objective phenomenon, but rather shaped by individual experiences and language use.

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