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In:Operationalizing Iconicity
Edited by Pamela Perniss, Olga Fischer and Christina Ljungberg
[Iconicity in Language and Literature 17] 2020
► pp. 307–326

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The iconic, indexical, and symbolic in language

Overlaps, inclusions, and exclusions

 | Catholic University of São Paulo
Published online: 13 May 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.17.18not
Abstract
The paper examines diverse forms of overlap between iconic, indexical, and symbolic signs in language. Against linguists who postulate such hybrids as “iconic symbols” or “indexical symbols” in language, it argues that in such cross-classifications of verbal signs, symbols are confounded with legisigns. On the other hand, the paper also shows how symbols may include elements of iconicity as well as elements of indexicality. Evidence is given from examples of onomatopoeic words, diagrammatic icons, and proper names. Furthermore, the paper points out the necessity of distinguishing between the nature of verbal signs as such and the one of the signs of their interpretants. It shows how verbal signs that are predominantly symbols (as signs) are mentally interpreted as icons (mental images) and indices (that refer to previous situations of experience).
Article outline
  • 1.The arbitrariness-motivation dualism and the icon-index-symbol trichotomy
  • 2.Alleged overlaps and vagueness vs. predominance
  • 3.The three universal categories as the foundation of the icon-index-symbol trichotomy
  • 4.Included and excluded ingredients of iconicity, indexicality, and symbolicity
  • 5.Onomatopoeic words as symbols with iconic ingredients
  • 6.Diagrammatic icons made up of symbols
  • 7.Indexicals and proper names
  • 8.How symbols are associated with iconic and indexical interpretants
  • 9.How the class of legisigns reduces the overlaps between symbols, indices, and icons
  • References
References (29)
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