A theory concerning iconicity

Abstract

The work here presented investigates what I consider a factor exerting great influence on the form of natural languages, viz. Iconicity. The procedure followed will be this. First, the sought for iconic radical of the linguistic code is defined as complementary of a hypothetic, universally valid, rule of pro-nominalization. Then, great care is taken to have the said rule rendered probable on the indications of independent evidence. And, finally, by an inspection of specimens of actual usage stipulated to be criterial I shall assess the significance of the conjectured iconicity radical. My investigations will be concerned, primarily, with Latin evidence; yet, supplementary data will cover a variety of language types, including some non-IE languages. My explications in principle will exploit only distributional criteria - with the crucial qualification, however, that these criteria be had in the mere effect of a semantic differentiation. This qualification, which, incidentally, betrays an option for the European (Saussurean) kind of Structuralism, will allow me to take in consideration also certain claims made by (Transformationalist) Binding Theory.