This commentary considers the depictive quality of ideophones within the context of a general semiotic. I seek to expand the
limited uptake of iconicity in linguistic theory from a resemblance between sign and object along Peirce’s second trichotomy
(icon, index, symbol) to discuss iconicity from the often overlooked perspective of Peirce’s third trichotomy (rheme, dicent,
argument). I examine ideophones as semiotic rhemes that affect iconic interpretants and suggest this shift in understanding
iconicity unites lexical iconicity with depictive processes in interaction more generally, and beyond this with other rhematic
linguistic signs. These parallels are illustrated by two examples of the expressive use of pitch, and throughout the discussion by
reference to how the work of the authors of the present Special Issue help free a theory of iconicity from the bonds of it being
considered a fixed, lexical relationship, to rather theorize iconicity as a poetic achievement designed for an interpreter’s
active reception.
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Cited by
Cited by 5 other publications
Bermúdez, Natalia
2020. Ideophone Humor: The Enregisterment of a Stereotype and Its Inversion. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 30:2 ► pp. 258 ff.
Choksi, Nishaant
2020. Expressives and the multimodal depiction of social types in Mundari. Language in Society 49:3 ► pp. 379 ff.
Hodge, Gabrielle & Lindsay Ferrara
2022. Iconicity as Multimodal, Polysemiotic, and Plurifunctional. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Vasantkumar, Chris
2019. Towards a commodity theory of token money: on ‘Gold standard thinking in a fiat currency world’. Journal of Cultural Economy 12:4 ► pp. 317 ff.
Webster, Anthony K.
2017. “So it's got three meanings dil dil:” Seductive ideophony and the sounds of Navajo poetry. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 62:2 ► pp. 173 ff.
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