언어기호의 유상성

Iconicity of Linguistic Signs

Iconicity is a term which is used to call similarity between a linguistic form and its meaning. The thought that there is no relation between a form of a linguistic sign and its contents i.e., that the relation is arbitrary has been widely accepted since Saussure. However, with the advent of cognitive linguistics, iconicity has become a new important area of research. In this paper, the following four aspects of iconicity are found out: quantity principle, proximity principle, me-first principle, sequential order principle. Natural language is not a system composed of arbitrary signs as has been supposed since Saussure. Many of the linguistic structures reflect human cognitive system. It turns out that language is not an autonomous system but the products of human body and soul based on human cognitive system and bodily experiences.