A framework for tracing iconicity
2004; De Gruyter; Volume: 2004; Issue: 149 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1515/semi.2004.033
ISSN1613-3692
Autores Tópico(s)Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
Resumo'Iconicity' refers to resemblance between form and meaning, between words and world, or between sign and reality. This paper aims to trace the 'iconic path' from one's experience of reality to its expression in language and from language back to newly perceived or freshly perceived reality. John Haiman (1999) offers some insight into the track from reality to language; he calls this track or process the 'sublimation trajectory': Physical action (i.e., 'ritualization') gives rise, mediated by linguistic style (i.e., a particular manner a speaking) and speech acts, to specific, articulated propositions (i.e., 'grammaticalization'). He suggests that along the trajectory from action to verbalization, the degree of iconicity decreases. This study will modify and expand Haiman's model of the sublimation trajectory. Not only will the modified model see the sublimation trajectory as a means of understanding iconicity, but it will view the track the other way round. Namely, the modified model will also be utilized to examine the track from verbalization to action, a track which I shall call the 'dramatization trajectory', for iconic speech is dramatic: It animates language. In other words, the model will see iconicity as a two-way operation. Finally, this paper will analyze several passages from William Blake's 'Jesrusalem', which articulates a divine vision of inconceivable sublimity.
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