From icon to abstraction in sign language: how iconicity shapes the lexicon in the visual modality

从手语的图标到抽象：图标性如何塑造视觉形态中的词汇

• 批准号: AH/T012641/1
• 负责人: Gerardo Ortega
• 金额: $ 36.23万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT012641%2F1
• 关键词: icon; abstraction; sign; language; how

Language is a unique human ability, yet the forces shaping vocabulary are little understood. A central tenet of linguistic theory is that the lexicon is arbitrary, with word and meaning related by convention alone1. However, recent research gives a more nuanced view: arbitrary form-meaning relationships co-exist with and complement iconic and systematic relationships2,3. Iconicity, the direct relationship between form and meaning, has been shown to play an important role in language learning and processing, offering a concrete grounding to our experience in the world3-6. As a result, iconicity has been characterised as having a limited capacity to refer to abstract concepts and thus as remaining limited in its scope within the lexicon of spoken languages7. Compared to the spoken modality, the visual modality of sign languages affords a high degree of iconicity. In this project, we explore how iconicity constrains form-meaning mappings in the visual modality and shapes a lexicon for both concrete and abstract concepts.We capitalise on the notion that words develop abstract meaning through the figurative use of concrete concepts while maintaining links to their origin, e.g. the concrete and abstract meaning of anchor share a core meaning of "preventing something from moving"8. We investigate sign languages, the natural languages of deaf communities. These are full-fledged languages on all levels of linguistic organisation and which exhibit a high prevalence of iconicity in their lexicon. Iconicity patterns in systematic ways across semantic domains9,10, and very often signs converge in the way concepts are expressed (e.g. the sign TO-WRITE). Importantly, sign languages exhibit instances of abstract concepts arising from concrete, iconic referents. E.g., in German Sign Language (DGS), the sign SCHOOL shares an iconic base with the sign TO-WRITE (Fig. 1). This suggests that groups of iconic signs share elements that are exploited as a springboard for meaning diversification while retaining some degree of semantic relatedness (i.e. process of colexification11). The iconic base of signs may be shared across sign languages (e.g. DGS and British Sign Language (BSL)), and the gestures produced by speaking communities may also have similar iconic forms (Fig. 1) due to shared conceptual representations and the shared modality. By comparing the form and meaning of signs across semantic domains in two unrelated sign languages (DGS and BSL), it will be possible to understand the underlying mechanisms by which iconicity shapes and constrains a lexicon. Comparing signs with silent gestures produced for the same concepts by non-signers in Germany and the UK will reveal the extent of shared cognitive and/or cultural bases and how these may diversify lexical forms and meanings for concrete and abstract concepts.

语言是一种独特的人类能力，然而人们对形成词汇的力量却知之甚少。语言学理论的一个中心原则是，词汇是任意的，词和意义仅由惯例联系起来。然而，最近的研究给出了一个更微妙的观点：任意的形式-意义关系与符号和系统关系共存并互补2,3。象似性，即形式和意义之间的直接关系，已被证明在语言学习和加工中发挥着重要作用，为我们的世界经验提供了具体的基础3-6。因此，象似性的特点是指抽象概念的能力有限，因此在口语词汇的范围内仍然有限。与口语形态相比，手语的视觉形态具有高度的象似性。在这个项目中，我们探讨象似性如何在视觉形态中限制形式-意义映射，并为具体和抽象概念塑造词汇。我们利用了这样一个概念，即单词通过具象地使用具体概念来发展抽象意义，同时保持与它们起源的联系，例如anchor的具体意义和抽象意义都有一个核心意义，即“阻止某物移动”8。我们调查手语，聋人社区的自然语言。这些语言在语言组织的各个层面上都是成熟的语言，它们在词汇中表现出高度的象似性。象似性模式以系统的方式跨越语义域9,10，并且通常符号在概念的表达方式上收敛（例如符号TO-WRITE）。重要的是，手语展示了从具体的、标志性的指称物中产生的抽象概念。例如，在德国手语（DGS）中，“SCHOOL”符号与“TO-WRITE”符号共用一个标志性的基础（图1）。这表明，在保留一定程度的语义相关性（即共化过程）的同时，一组标志性符号共享的元素被用作意义多样化的跳板。符号的符号基础可以在手语中共享（例如DGS和英国手语（BSL）），并且由于共享的概念表征和共享的模态，说话社区产生的手势也可能具有类似的符号形式（图1）。通过比较两种不相关的手语（DGS和BSL）跨语义域的符号形式和意义，我们将有可能理解象似性塑造和约束词汇的潜在机制。将德国和英国的非手语者对相同概念所做的手势与沉默手势进行比较，将揭示共同认知和/或文化基础的程度，以及这些如何使具体和抽象概念的词汇形式和含义多样化。