DOI 10.1515/cog-2013-0010 Cognitive Linguistics 2013; 24(2): 309 – 343 Irit Meir, Carol Padden, Mark Aronoff and Wendy Sandler Competing iconicities in the structure of languages Abstract: The paper examines the role that iconicity plays in the structuring of grammars. Two main points are argued for: (a) Grammar does not necessarily suppress iconicity; rather, iconicity and grammar can enjoy a congenial relation in that iconicity can play an active role in the structuring of grammars. (b) Iconicity is not monolithic. There are different types of iconicity and lan guages take advantage of the possibilities afforded by them. We examine the interaction between iconicity and grammar by focusing on the ways in which sign languages employ the physical body of the signer as a rich iconic resource for encoding a variety of grammatical notions. We show that the body can play three different roles in iconic forms in sign languages: it can be used as a nam ing device where body parts represent body parts; it can represent the sub ject a rgument of verbal signs, and it can stand for first person. These strategies interact and sometimes compete in the languages under study. Each language resolves these competitions differently, which results in different grammars and grammatical structures. The investigation of the ways in which grammar and iconicity interact in these languages provides insight into the nature of both systems. Keywords: Iconicity, Body, Subject, Grammatical person, Sign languages Irit Meir: Department of Hebrew Language, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 31905 Israel. Phone: +972-4-8249965. E-mail:
[email protected] Carol Padden: Department of Communication, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0503.