Recent contributions in the fields of theoretical and applied linguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and literary studies show that iconicity, which the framework of Saussurean or classical structural linguistics restricted to onomatopoeia and sound symbolism, can no longer be dismissed as an issue of little importance by anyone dealing with the nature and functioning of language. Today there seems to be a shared conviction that iconicity is omnipresent in language and indeed constitutes a “prerequisite of mutual understanding in communication in general” (Nöth 2000).