Abstract
Abstract This article looks at cross-linguistic variation in lexical iconicity, addressing the question of to what extent and how this variation is patterned. More than in spoken languages, iconicity is highly frequent in the lexicons of sign languages. It is also highly complex, in that often multiple motivated components jointly shape an iconic lexeme. Recent typological research on spoken languages finds tentative iconic patterning in a large number of basic lexical items, underlining once again the significance of iconicity for human language. The uncontested and widespread use of iconicity found in the lexicons of sign languages enables us to take typological research into lexical iconicity to the next level. Indeed, previous studies have shown cross-linguistic variation in: a) the use of embodying and handling handshapes in sign languages (mostly of European origin) and b) the frequency of space-based size depiction in African and European sign languages. The two types of variation may be interrelated, as handling handshapes may use space-based size depiction. In this study, we first replicate earlier studies on the distribution of embodying and handling handshapes, this time in a data set consisting of a relatively large set of sign languages (n = 11), most of which are used in Africa. The results confirm significant variation across these sign languages. These findings are then compared to the use of space-based size depiction, revealing that these patterns independently from the distribution of embodying/handling handshapes. We argue that the results call for expanding typological studies on representational strategies in iconic signs beyond the now relatively well studied instrument/manipulation alternation. Fine-grained analyses on a multitude of iconic features in signs are likely to reveal cross-linguistic variation in iconic tendencies in SL lexicons.
Highlights
Iconicity is a semiotic feature found both in spoken and signed languages, whereby a linguistic form resembles one or more aspects of its meaning (Peirce 1932)
Because of the categorical character of the collected data, a chi-square analysis was carried out to find out whether there is an interaction between the sign language and handshape preference
The results show that the 11 sign languages (SLs) can be divided into three groups, i.e.: 1) a group with a preference for object handshapes: Adamarobe SL (AdaSL), NanaSL,11 and GSL 2) a group with a preference for handling handshapes: LSAF in Côte d’Ivoire, LaSiMa, and LGP 3) a middle group without a strong preference: KSL, EthSL, NGT, and LGG, and Comparison of these results with the frequency of use of another representational strategy, i.e. of size-in-space depiction as reported on for NGT, LaSiMa, LaSiBo, and AdaSL in Nyst (2018) suggests that there is no relation between a preference for object handshapes and infrequent use of size-in-space depiction in SLs other than AdaSL
Summary
Iconicity is a semiotic feature found both in spoken and signed languages, whereby a linguistic form resembles one or more aspects of its meaning (Peirce 1932). Imagic or direct (Perniss et al 2010) iconicity in sign languages (SLs) can consist of any visual language element, for example a particular configuration of the hand, movement, a location, or a facial expression, depicting a visual image. Even in motivated words like ideophones, the proportion of imagic iconic items may be limited in spoken languages.. Even in motivated words like ideophones, the proportion of imagic iconic items may be limited in spoken languages.1 It is the visual-spatial nature of sign languages together with our dominant visual-spatial perception of the world around us seems a likely explanation for the “abundance of direct iconic, visual-to-visual mappings” in SLs (Perniss et al 2010: 4). Imagic iconicity is so abundant in part of the lexicons of sign languages that this seems to have kept sign languages from being considered full-fledged languages for many decades (cf. Perniss et al 2010)
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