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Article published In:
Special Issue in Memory of Irit Meir
Edited by Diane Lillo-Martin, Wendy Sandler, Marie Coppola and Rose Stamp
[Sign Language & Linguistics 23:1/2] 2020
► pp. 73–95

Lexical iconicity is differentially favored under transmission in a new sign language

The effect of type of iconicity

| Wellesley College
| Barnard College of Columbia University

Observations that iconicity diminishes over time in sign languages (Frishberg 1975) pose a puzzle: Why should something so evidently useful and functional decrease? Using an archival dataset of signs elicited over 15 years from 4 first-cohort and 4 third-cohort signers of an emerging sign language (Nicaraguan Sign Language), we investigated changes in pantomimic (body-to-body) and perceptual (body-to-object) iconicity. We make three key observations: (1) there is greater variability in the signs produced by the first cohort compared to the third; (2) while both types of iconicity are evident, pantomimic iconicity is more prevalent than perceptual iconicity for both groups; and (3) across cohorts, pantomimic elements are dropped to a greater proportion than perceptual elements. The higher rate of pantomimic iconicity in the first-cohort lexicon reflects the usefulness of body-as-body mapping in language creation. Yet, its greater vulnerability to change over transmission suggests that it is less favored by children’s language acquisition processes.

Keywords: language emergence, iconicity, vocabulary, Nicaraguan Sign Language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimuli and procedure
    • 2.3Coding
      • 2.3.1Variability
      • 2.3.2Prevalence of iconicity type
      • 2.3.3Changes in iconic elements within multi-sign compounds
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Variability
    • 3.2Prevalence of iconicity type
    • 3.3Changes in iconic elements within multi-sign compounds
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00044.pye
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