Iconicity in Language 3003-C361JK1
The seminar is concerned with the question pertaining to the nature of the language, namely to what extent linguistic signs are arbitrary (i.e. conventional) and to what extent they are motivated by their meaning. Various phenomena will be discusses which challenge the thesis that linguistic signs are arbitrary: sound symbolism, diagrammatic iconity, phonaesthesia, loanwords expressivity et al. Much attention will be paid to onomatopoeia and some borderline phenomena of language and literature, e.g. ideographic works and the figures of sound. Brand names and idioms motivated by gestures will be included, psychological experiments on sound symbolism will be discussed, and spectrograms of animal voices and the words imitating them will be compared. The students will gain the opportunity to look at the language in quite a different way than usual and learn the phenomena which have often been marginalised in textbooks or even eliminated as non-scientific.
Topics to be discussed:
1. Man as Animal Symbolicum. Iconicity beyond natural languages.
2. Symbols, icons, indexes: classyfying the signs or the ways of designation? Ancient dispute between the ‘conventionalist’ and the ‘naturalists’. What do the structural linguists say on the arbitrariness of signs.
3. Phenomena limiting the conventionality of signs: onomatopoeia, sound symbolism, phonaesthesia, diagrammatical iconity, metaphor, compositionality of expressions. Iconisation and deiconisation in language.
4. Research on sound symbolism (a survey).
5. Does the cuckoo goes ‘cuckoo’ indeed? Spectrograms of animal sounds and of words imitating them. Biological basis of sound symbolism.
6. Onomatopoetic words: the notion and its scope. Names of the same sounds in different languages.
7. Phonological structure of Polish onomatopoetic words.
8. Derivational models of Polish onomatopoetic words.
9. Syntactic, semantic and pragmatic functions of Polish onomatopoetic words.
10. Onomatopoetic words, sound symbolism and other techniques of imitating sounds in text. The figures of sounds in children’s poetry.
11. How to translate onomatopoetic words? ‘Lokomotywa’ (The Engine) by Julian Tuwim in several languages.
12. Onomatopoeia, music, dance, and singing: playing with children.
13. Iconicity in writing: Punctuation, emoticons, typography, onomatopoeia in comic books, shape-imitating expressions, ideographic poetry, visual literature, liberature, word art.
14. Diagrammaticity in language: an overwiew.
15. Iconicity at the level of genre and style.
16. Iconicity of prosodic features.
17. Iconicity of gestures in spoken and signed languages.
18. Iconicity and motivation of proper names.
19. Sound symbolism and brand names.
20. Iconicity in the process of language change.
The second year of the seminar will focus on iconicity in the adaptation of loanwords. Much space will be devoted to methodological and technical issues related to conducting research and preparing diploma theses. Thesis papers can be on topics from the first or second year.
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, the students should:
– recognise different examples of iconity in language,
– analyse sign messages, including the combination of iconic and arbitrary elements
– explain where iconic signs come from, why they remain in use and what merits they have
– pay attention to the individual features of particular signs, resulting from their form–meaning relation,
– be able to use iconic signs in practice, e.g. when coining brand names, playing with children, or reading poetry aloud.
Assessment criteria
Participation in classes, doing homework. Team task to pass the year.
Practical placement
No previous training is required.
Bibliography
The following list includes selected items for the first year.
- Allot R., Sound symbolism, in: Language in the Würm Glaciation, ed. U. L. Figge. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1995, pp. 15-38. [https://www.academia.edu/5957292/SOUND_SYMBOLISM]
- Bańko M., Ikoniczne walory cech prozodycznych 'Lokomotywy' Tuwima w recytacji Piotra Fronczewskiego, "Poradnik Językowy", 2022, nr 6, s. 39-51. [http://poradnikjezykowy.uw.edu.pl/numery/numer.php?nr=6&rok=2022]
- Bańko M., 'Konszabelant': osobliwy transfer językowy, "Język Polski",CII, 2022, nr 4, s. 55-65. [https://jezyk-polski.pl/index.php/jp/article/view/131/216]
- Bańko M., Opozycja samogłosek przednich i tylnych a znaczenie polskich onomatopei, „LingVaria”, 2008, z. 2 (6), s. 61–77. [http://banko.polon.uw.edu.pl/inne_publikacje.html]
- Bańko M., Współczesny polski onomatopeikon. Ikoniczność w języku. Warszawa: PWN, 2008. [Dostępny w ibuk.pl: http://www.ibuk.pl/fiszka/621/Wsp%F3%B3czesny+polski+onomatopeikon.html]
- Bralczyk J., Nowe słowa. Warszawa: Hachette, 2007. [Selected entries]
- Cieślikowski J., Literatura i podkultura dziecięca. Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1974, pp. 213–223.
- Cieślikowski J., Najbardziej popularny wiersz Tuwima, in: J. Cieślikowski, Literatura osobna, ed. R. Waksmund. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia, 1985, pp. 122–128.
- Dionizjusz, O zestawianiu wyrazów, in: Trzy stylistyki greckie. Arystoteles, Demetriusz, Dionizjusz, ed. W. Matyda. Wrocław: Ossolineum, 2006, pp. 206–219.
- (The) Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics, ed. R. E. Asher. Oxford, New York, Seoul, Tokyo: Pergamon Press, 1994, entry for „sound symbolism”. [Open access in BUW]
- Fónagy I., Język poetycki – forma i funkcja. „Pamiętnik Literacki”, 1972, no 2, pp. 217–257.
- International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics, ed. w Bright. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, entries for: „sound symbolism” and "iconicity". [Open access in BUW]
- Jakobson R., W poszukiwaniu istoty języka, in: R. Jakobson, W poszukiwaniu istoty języka, t. 1. Warszawa: PIW, 1989, pp. 115–134. [Original text: Quest for the essence of language, in: R. Jakobson, Selected Writings, vol. 2, 1971, pp. 345-359]
- Jakobson R., Waugh L., Magia dźwięków mowy, in: R. Jakobson, W poszukiwaniu istoty języka, t. 1. Warszawa: PIW, 1989, pp. 282–340. [Original text: The spell of speech sounds, in: R. Jakobson. L. Waugh, The Sound Shape of Language. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1979, pp. 177-231]
- Milewski T., Językoznawstwo, 1965 or later ed. Warszawa: PWN, pp. 117–119.
- Ohala J., The frequency code underlies the sound-symbolic use of voice pitch (w:) L. Hinton, J. Nichols, & J. J. Ohala (red.), Sound Symbolism, 1994, pp. 325-347. [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~ohala/papers/freq_code.pdf]
- Perniss P., Thompson R. L., Vigliocco G., Iconicity as a general property of language: Evidence from spoken and signed languages, "Frontiers in Psychology", vol. 1 (227), 2010, pp. 1-15.
- Plato, Cratylus (fragments).
- Pszczołowska L., Instrumentacja dźwiękowa. Wrocław: Ossolineum, 1977 (fragments).
- Tsur R., Onomatopoeia: cuckoo-language and tick-tocking. The constraints of semiotic systems. [https://www.tau.ac.il/~tsurxx/Cuckoo_onomatopoeia.html; extended in: Tsur. R., Constraints of the semiotic system. Onomatopoeia, expressive sound patterns and poetry translation, in: Heuristiken der Literaturwissenschaft. Disziplinexterne Perspektiven auf Literatur. Paderborn: mentis, 2006, pp. 245, 270]
- Tuwim J., Pegaz dęba. Czytelnik, 1950, pp. 237–247, 326–327, 350–368.
In addition: selected articles from the series "Iconicity in Language in Literature" (available from e-BUW), children's poems, M. Falski's primer, comic books, bird atlases, selected web pages, etc.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: