Naturalness and iconicity in language (John Benjamins Pub. Co., 2008)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Naturalness and Iconicity in Language; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Table of contents; Contributors; Editors; Introduction; Philosophical naturalism and linguistic epistemology; Prolegomena to a general theory of iconicity considerations on language, gesture, and pictures; Semiotic foundations of natural linguistics and diagrammatic iconicity; Naturalness and markedness; Natural and unnatural sound patterns; The iconic function of full inversion in English; What is iconic about polysemy?; Iconicity in sign languages; Arbitrary structure, cognitive grammar, and the partes orationis
Iconicity and naturalness remain controversial concepts in recent linguistic research. The present volume aims to scrutinize unresolved issues of iconicity and naturalness in language. The studies discuss topics such as naturalism in the philosophy of language and the epistemology of linguistics, linguistic iconicity in semiotics, iconic structures in Sign Languages, natural and unnatural sound patterns, the iconic nature of parts of speech, the relation between (un)markedness and naturalness, and lexical and syntactic iconicity. The research conducted is based on sound (meta)theoretical analy