Article published in:
Ideophones: Between Grammar and PoetryEdited by Katherine Lahti, Rusty Barrett and Anthony K. Webster
[Pragmatics and Society 5:3] 2014
► pp. 445–454
Ideophones, rhemes, interpretants
Mark A. Sicoli | Georgetown University
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.
Keywords: poetics, sound symbolism, iconicity, Peirce, semiotics, depiction, ideophones
Published online: 14 November 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.5.3.08sic
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.5.3.08sic
References
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Benveniste, Emile
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Saussure, Ferdinand de
Schieffelin, Bambi, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul V. Kroskrity
Shayan, Shakila, Özge Öztürk, and Mark A. Sicoli
Sicoli, Mark A., Asifa Majid and Stephen C. Levinson
Sicoli, Mark A., Tanya Stivers, N.J. Enfield, and Stephen C. Levinson
Cited by
Cited by other publications
Bermúdez, Natalia
Choksi, Nishaant
Vasantkumar, Chris
Webster, Anthony K.
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