On the Scientific Status of Iconicity

This paper explores the operational and conceptual meanings of the iconicity of manual signs and sign languages, by contrasting aspects of iconicity with parallel facets of stimulus meaningfulness in the Paired-Associates (PA) rote verbal learning literature. Historical, conceptual, and theoretical aspects of iconicity related to language systems in general and American Sign Language (ASL) in particular are treated in Section 1. Section 2 describes empirical studies related to operational definition of iconicity in ASL signs, and addresses the issues and implications of this literature. Section 3 describes parallels between iconicity and stimulus meaningfulness and the implications of these parallels for the scientific status of iconicity and of research related to the role of iconicity in sign language systems.