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Article published In: Gesture
Vol. 16:1 (2017) ► pp.100–126

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Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder

How language experience affects perceived iconicity

 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque | National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology
 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque | Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
 | University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
 | University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Published online: 29 June 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.16.1.04occ
Abstract
A renewed interest in understanding the role of iconicity in the structure and processing of signed languages is hampered by the conflation of iconicity and transparency in the definition and operationalization of iconicity as a variable. We hypothesize that iconicity is fundamentally different than transparency since it arises from individuals’ experience with the world and their language, and is subjectively mediated by the signers’ construal of form and meaning. We test this hypothesis by asking American Sign Language (ASL) signers and German Sign Language (DGS) signers to rate iconicity of ASL and DGS signs. Native signers consistently rate signs in their own language as more iconic than foreign language signs. The results demonstrate that the perception of iconicity is intimately related to language-specific experience. Discovering the full ramifications of iconicity for the structure and processing of signed languages requires operationalizing this construct in a manner that is sensitive to language experience.
Article outline
  • Introduction
    • Recent investigations of iconicity
    • Defining iconicity: Iconicity as a property of language
    • Iconicity defined in signed language literature
    • Cognitive definitions of iconicity
    • Research question
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Materials
    • Procedure
  • Results
    • Controls
    • Native vs. foreign iconicity judgments
    • High vs. low iconicity subset
    • Cross-language visual similarity subset
    • Initialization subset
    • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (53)
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