Iconicity in Language (WiSe 2018/2019)
Bachelor's seminar, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, 2018
Course description:
According to de Saussure (1916), arbitrariness is one of the fundamental principles of a linguistic sign. A theory that is often cited in opposition to the Saussurian view is iconicity, which according to Perniss & Vigliocco (2014, 2) means “any resemblance between certain properties of linguistic/communicative form […] and certain sensori-motor and/or affective properties of corresponding referents”. For almost 100 years, new evidence in favor of iconicity in language has been presented again and again. In this course, we will explore the question of whether arbitrariness and iconicity can coexist in languages and according to which principles iconicity can occur. In the first part, we will look at previous research on iconicity and then carry out our own empirical work in the second part.
The course was taught together with Susanne Fuchs.