The contribution of individual parameters to perceived iconicity and transparency in gesture-sign pairs

Abstract

It is often assumed that gestures are more iconic than signs, as they do not have to conformto a linguistic system. This study introduces an expanded methodology to explore(a) the relative transparency and iconicity of silent gestures and signs, and (b) the iconicityof three individual parameters (handshape, location and movement). We elicitedmeaning guesses and iconicity ratings (both whole-item and for each parameter) fromsign-naive participants for both gestures and signs. Pilot data provide no evidence fordifferences in transparency and iconicity of gestures and signs, butwe do find interestingexamples of signs rated as more iconic than gestures. The iconicity of all three parametersis correlated with the iconicity of the whole item in both gestures and signs, butthere may be a role for iconic strategies and the saliency of individual parameters. Withthis method, we provide a novel, more fine-grained manner of investigating iconicity inthe manual modality.