Components of iconicity in German Sign Language (DGS): Hearing non-signer’s perception of phonological and semantic parameters of iconicity

Zusammenfassung

Iconicity is defined as a perceived resemblance between aspects of a linguistic form and aspects of its associated meaning (Perniss et al. 2010; Perniss and Vigliocco 2014; Dingemanse 2019). Transparency describes a degree of this resemblance, in which a signs meaning can be correctly inferred solely based on its form (Pizzuto and Volterra 2013; Occhino et al. 2017; Sehyr and Emmorey 2019). While interest in iconicity and transparency has increased in recent years, they are predominantly considered in their entirety rather than from a compositional perspective. In this study, we investigate iconicity as a compositional phenomenon, by examining 50 lexical signs in DGS regarding the question which phonological parameters, as well as instantiations of semantic attributes, carry the most iconic potential for hearing non- signers. In our study, we provide a new analysis of qualitative data for 50 lexical signs which was collected within a study by Trettenbrein and Pendzich et al. 2021. The data consists of responses by 30 hearing non-signers regarding the aspects of meaning they recognized in the examined signs. The answers were coded according to four phonological parameters; location, handshape, path movement, and facial expressions, as well as to iconic instantiations of semantic attributes, which we categorized into action, state, item, creature, and body part. In this poster, we present our analysis of this qualitative data with the goal of ascertaining which phonological and semantic parameters carry the most iconic potential for hearing non-signers. A preliminary analysis of the data indicates that movement and location seem to carry the most iconic potential for hearing non-signers with regards to phonology. Semantically, aspects of meaning depicted by iconic instantiations of actions, items, and body parts seem to be the most recognizable and transparent to hearing non-signers.

Datum
Ort
Göttingen, Deutschland