The Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language

The Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language offers a comprehensive guide to the role that iconicity - resemblance between form and meaning - plays in all modes of languages, on all levels of language, and in all aspects of language. The originally semiotic notion of iconicity has gained widespread attention beyond the field of linguistics; this volume thus brings together research exploring a wide range of topics in iconicity from different perspectives. It explores the history of iconicity and its place in linguistic theory, in particular how the idea of iconicity has developed over time and how it has recently begun to once again influence thinking and theorizing about language. By presenting a very broad spectrum of iconicity, the chapters provide greater recognition of its influence and present a clearer picture of its scope across the languages of the world. They also offer a critical discussion of the notion of iconicity, as its parameters, dimensions, and operationalizations are not always easy to define. The volume will appeal to linguists of all theoretical persuasions, but also to a wider audience outside linguistics proper, including researchers and students in the fields of literature, philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science.

Olga Fischer, Professor Emerita of Germanic Linguistics, University of Amsterdam,Kimi Akita, Associate Professor, School of Humanities, Nagoya University,Pamela Perniss, Professor, Faculty of Human Sciences and Chair of the Sign Language Interpreting Program, University of Cologne

Olga Fischer is Professor Emerita of Germanic Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. She is the author of Morphosyntactic Change: Functional and Formal Perspectives (OUP 2007), co-author of A Brief History of English Syntax (CUP 2017), founder and co-editor of the Iconicity in Language and Literature series (Benjamins 1999-present), and chief editor of Folia Linguistica (2016-2023). She has edited volumes on grammaticalization and syntactic change (Benjamins 2000, 2004), and has published widely in these areas in academic journals such as Journal of Linguistics, Diachronica, Transactions of the Philological Society, and Studies in Language.


Kimi Akita is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities at Nagoya University. His research interests include ideophones, sound symbolism, and linguistic typology. He has published in major journals, including Linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Cognitive Science, and Journal of Linguistics. He is the co-editor of Iconicity: East Meets West (Benjamins 2015), The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition, and Translation (Routledge 2017), and Ideophones, Mimetics and Expressives (Benjamins 2019).


Pamela Perniss is Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences and Chair of the Sign Language Interpreting (DGS-German) program at the University of Cologne. Her research takes a multimodal approach to language and focuses in particular on the role of iconicity in the visual modality in shaping language structure and processing. She has co-edited volumes and special issues related to the study of iconicity, including in the series Iconicity in Language and Literature (Benjamins 2020) and in Language and Cognition (CUP 2020). She is General Editor of Sign Language & Linguistics and Associate Editor of Cognitive Science.

1. Introduction: Iconicity as a general principle underlying language and language behavior, Olga Fischer, Pamela Perniss, and Kimi AkitaPart I. Foundational issues in iconicity2. Iconicity in classical philosophy: A legacy of prehistoric orality, Luca Nobile3. Peirce on icons and iconicity, Winfried Nöth4. Saussure and iconicity: The ghost in the machine?, John E. Joseph5. nalogy and iconicity, Hendrik De Smet6. Iconicity in language typology, Sonia Cristofaro7. The explanatory power of iconicity in language, Ludovic De Cuypere8. Frequency, variation, and iconicity, Thomas BergPart II. Iconicity in linguistic theorizing9. Iconicity and generative grammar, Diego Gabriel Krivochen and L'udmila Lacková Bennett10. Iconicity in cognitive and functional linguistics, Elzbieta Muskat-Tabakowska11. Defining iconicity for the cognitive sciences, Bodo Winter, Greg Woodin, and Marcus Perlman12. Embodied mind, Vincent M. ColapietroPart III. (Morpho)phonology13. Iconic prosody and its connection to iconic gesture, Marcus Perlman14. Experimental approaches to sound symbolism, David M. Sidhu15. Cross-linguistic vocal iconicity, Niklas Erben Johansson16. The segmentals and suprasegmentals of ideophones, Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano17. Iconicity in formational properties of signs in sign languages, Oksana TkachmanPart IV. Iconicity in writing systems18. Phonographic writing systems, Dimitrios Meletis19. Logographic writing systems and Chinese characters, Xinxin Zhao20. Notational iconicity, Sybille KrämerPart V. Morphosyntax21. Iconicity in word formation, Wolfgang U. Dressler and Marianne Kilani-Schoch22. Reduplication in spoken and signed language, Thomas Schwaiger23. Iconicity in diminutives and augmentatives, Lívia Körtvélyessy24. Iconic plurality across modalities, Carl Börstell25. Iconicity in verbal formation, Isabeau De Smet and Freek Van de Velde26. Principles of diagrammatic iconicity in language, Klaas Willems27. The iconicity of affix order, Stela Manova28. Iconicity in simultaneous constructions in sign languages, Anita SlonimskaPart VI. Lexis and semantics29. The enactive iconicity of ideophone semantics, Janis B. Nuckolls30. Etymology and folk etymology, Anatoly Liberman31. Degrees of iconicity in gestures: From richness to schematicity, Silva H. Ladewig32. Iconicity in the visual lexicons of comics, Michal Szawerna and Neil CohnPart VII. Discourse33. Iconic sequencing in spoken and signed language, James H.-Y. Tai34. Iconic and non-iconic aspects of storytelling: Narrative fiction, temporality, and memory, Yanna Popova35. Iconicity in signed narratives, Lindsay FerraraPart VIII. Iconicity and language learning/ language development36. Iconic bootstrapping for language development: One size does not fit all, Catherine Laing and Beyza Sümer37. Iconicity in L2 learning, Gerardo Ortega, Yukari Hirata, and Spencer Kelly38. Iconicity in pidgins and creoles, Peter Bakker39. Effects of iconicity in populations with speech, language, and communication needs, Lotte MeteyardPart IX. Iconicity and language processing40. Iconicity in sign language processing: Lexical effects in comprehension and production, Robin L. Thompson and Corrine Occhino41. A robustness approach to operationalizations of iconicity, Bonnie McLean and Yasamin Motamedi42. Iconicity in the mind: Unravelling the cognitive and neural pathways linking sound and meaning, Arash AryaniPart X. Iconicity and language evolution and emergence43. Sign iconicity and its contribution to gesture-first theories of language origin, Nicolas Fay and Bradley Walker44. The evolution of linguistic iconicity and the cross-modal cognitive suite, Christine Cuskley and Kees Sommer45. Iconicity, multi-modality, and language evolution, Bencie Woll46. De-iconization and (re)-iconization: Diachronic aspects of lexical iconicity in spoken languages, Maria Flaksman47. De-iconization and re-iconization in signed languages: The case of Japanese sign language, William J. Herlofsky48. Iconicity in the evolution of language: Computational models and laboratory experiments, Loïs Dona and Marieke Schouwstra49. Language contact and iconicity, Brian D. JosephPart XI. Applications of iconicity50. Iconicity in invented languages, Federico Gobbo51. Iconicity in literature, Christina Ljungberg52. The aesthetic motivation of icons: 'We first love things when first we see them painted', John Haiman53. Translation of iconicity: Iconicity of translation, Imogen Cohen and Eric Metz