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In functional-cognitive linguistics, as well as in semiotics, iconicity is the conceived similarity or analogy between the form of a sign (linguistic or otherwise) and its meaning, as opposed to arbitrariness. Iconic principles: *Quantity principle: conceptual complexity corresponds to formal complexity *Proximity principle: conceptual distance tends to match with linguistic distance *Sequential order principle: the sequential order of events described is mirrored in the speech chain ==Quantity principle== The use of quantity of phonetic material to iconically mark increased quality or quantity can be noted in the lengthening of words to indicate a greater degree, such as "looong". It is also common to use reduplication to iconically mark increase, as Sapir is often quoted, “The process is generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance” (1921:79). This has been confirmed by the comparative studies of Key (1965) and Moravcsik (1978).〔Moravcsik (1978)〕 This can be seen, for example, in Amharic: ''täsäbbärä'' 'it was broken' and ''täsäbbabärä'' 'it was shattered'. Iconic coding principles may be natural tendencies in language and are also part of our cognitive and biological make-up. The question whether iconicity is indeed a true part of language has always been debated in linguistics. Recently, for instance, Haspelmath has argued against iconicity, claiming that most iconic phenomena can be explained by frequency biases: since simpler meanings tend to be more frequent in the language use they tend to lose phonological material. Onomatopoeia may be seen as a kind of iconicity, though even onomatopoeic sounds have a large degree of arbitrariness. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Iconicity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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