A Brief Review of the History of Iconicity

  This paper aims to demonstrate a detailed development history of iconicity in its process of struggle against arbitrariness. The debate on arbitrariness and/or iconicity of language sign is one of the oldest in the history of linguistics. It never stopped until Saussure claimed his arbitrariness as the fundamental principle of language. However, iconicity approach did not give way to it, rather carried over and developed by a continuous chain of reflections. By now, it has influenced particular aspects of linguistics and maybe some other areas will shortly be influenced. The conclusion is that the development history of iconicity helps us witness the development history of the whole linguistic science.