THE PHENOMENON OF ICONICITY IN THE LANGUAGE: SEMIOTIC, COGNITIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE ASPECTS (on the material of the English language)

THE PHENOMENON OF ICONICITY IN THE LANGUAGE: SEMIOTIC, COGNITIVE AND COMMUNICATIVE ASPECTS (on the material of the English language)

Author:  L.A. Kozlova

Affiliation:  Altai State Pedagogical University

Abstract:  The article analyses the phenomenon of iconicity viewed from semiotic, cognitive and communicative aspects. As the article shows, being the earliest types of language signs, icons have not lost their significance in modern language and contribute a lot to the language fulfilling its major functions. Viewed from the cognitive aspect, the essence of iconicity consists in the choice of such a lingual form that reflects to a certain degree the cognitive image of an object in our mind. The author argues that the iconic coding of meaning proves to be the most economical and accessible for interpretation, because the form itself contributes significantly to the interpretation of meaning.
The article demonstrates the functioning of the main principles of iconic coding of meaning: iconic sequencing, iconic proximity and iconic quantity. As the author shows, these principles of iconic coding can be employed on all levels of language. Thus the principle of iconic sequencing finds its manifestation in the sequence of homogeneous predicates which is often not arbitrary but isomorphic to the sequence of events in reality and, correspondingly, to their sequence in the cognitive scheme of events in our mind. The sequence of attributes in the structure of the N-phrase is determined by the sequence of scanning, i.e. perception of the features of an object and their mental processing. The essence of iconic proximity principle, as the author shows, is manifested in the fact that the proximity of language units in the text is isomorphic to the proximity of concepts in our mind. The principle of iconic quantity underlies the process of transformation of phrases into compound words, which signals the formation of iconic quantity: one meaning – one word.
Considering the communicative aspect of iconicity, the author reveals the linguocreative potential of iconic coding of meaning, which finds its actualization in the text. The analysis of text fragments enables the author to conclude that the study of iconicity phenomenon can prove useful in the text analysis as it may help in revealing the specificity of an author’s idiostyle.

Keywords:  iconicity; semiotic, cognitive and communicative aspects; the relations of similarity, or isomorphism, iconic sequencing; iconic proximity; iconic quantity; iconic coding of meaning.

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For citation:  Kozlova, L. A. (2018). The phenomenon of iconicity in the language: semiotic, cognitive and communicative aspects (on the material of the English language). Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 1, 47-55. (In Russ.).

Pages:  47-55