Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T22:42:20.292Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of iconicity, construal, and proficiency in the online processing of handshape

Part of: Iconicity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2020

CORRINE OCCHINO Open the ORCID record for CORRINE OCCHINO [Opens in a new window] ,
BENJAMIN ANIBLE Open the ORCID record for BENJAMIN ANIBLE [Opens in a new window]  and
JILL P. MORFORD Open the ORCID record for JILL P. MORFORD [Opens in a new window]
CORRINE OCCHINO*
Affiliation:
National Technical Institute for the Deaf – Center on Language and Cognition, Rochester Institute of Technology
BENJAMIN ANIBLE
Affiliation:
Section for Sign Language and Interpreting, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
JILL P. MORFORD
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of New Mexico
*
*Address for correspondence: Corrine Occhino, NTID Center on Cognition and Language, 52 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY, 14623, USA. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Iconicity has traditionally been considered an objective, fixed, unidimensional property of language forms, often operationalized as transparency for experimental purposes. Within a Cognitive Linguistics framework, iconicity is a mapping between an individual’s construal of form and construal of meaning, such that iconicity is subjective, dynamic, and multidimensional. We test the latter alternative by asking signers who differed in ASL proficiency to complete a handshape monitoring task in which we manipulated the number of form–meaning construals that target handshapes participated in. We estimated the interaction of iconicity, proficiency, and construal density using mixed-effects models for response time and accuracy with crossed random effects for participants and items.

Results show a significant three-way interaction between iconicity, proficiency, and construal density such that less-proficient signers detected handshapes in more iconic signs faster than less iconic signs regardless of the handshape they were monitoring, but highly proficient signers’ performance was only improved by iconicity for handshapes that participate in many construals. Taken in conjunction with growing evidence of the subjectivity of iconicity, we interpret these results as support for the claim that construal is a core mechanism underlying iconicity, both for transparent and systematic language-internal form–meaning mappings.

Keywords

iconicitytransparencymarkednesshandshapeASLphoneme monitoringsign language
Type
Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 12 , Issue 1: Special Issue on Iconicity , March 2020 , pp. 114 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2020 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

references

Anible, B. (2016). Iconicity effects in translation direction: bimodal bilingual language processing . Unpublished dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. Retrieved from <https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/41>.Google Scholar
Anible, B., Twitchell, P. A., Waters, G. S., Dussias, P. E., Piñar, P. & Morford, J. P. (2015). Sensitivity to verb bias in American Sign Language–English bilinguals. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 20(3), 215–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baayen, R. H. & Milin, P. (2010). Analyzing reaction times. International Journal of Psychological Research 3(2), 12–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B. & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67(1).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baus, C., Carreiras, M. & Emmorey, K. (2013). When does iconicity in sign language matter? Language and Cognitive Processes 28(3), 261–271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Börstell, C., Hörberg, T. H. & Östling, R. (2016). Distribution and duration of signs and PoS in Swedish SL. Sign Language & Linguistics 19(2), 143–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Börstell, C., Lepic, R. & Belsitzman, G. (2016). Articulatory plurality is a property of lexical plurals in sign language. Lingvisticae Investigationes 39(2), 391–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosworth, R. G. & Emmorey, K. (2010). Effects of iconicity and semantic relatedness on lexical access in American Sign Language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 36, 1573–1581.Google ScholarPubMed
Brentari, D. (1998). A prosodic model of sign language phonology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bybee, J. L. (2001). Phonology and language use. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bybee, J. L. (2006). From usage to grammar: the mind’s response to repetition. Language, 82(4), 711–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caselli, N. K., Sehyr, Z. S., Cohen-Goldberg, A. M. & Emmorey, K. (2017). ASL-LEX: a lexical database of American Sign Language. Behavior Research Methods 49(2), 784–801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connine, C. M. & Titone, D. (1996). Phoneme monitoring. Language and Cognitive Processes 11(6), 635–645.Google Scholar
Cuxac, C. (1996). Fonctions et structures de l’iconicité des langues des signes. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Université Paris V.Google Scholar
Dingemanse, M., Blasi, D. E., Lupyan, G., Christiansen, M. H. & Monaghan, P. (2015). Arbitrariness, iconicity, and systematicity in language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 19(10), 603–615.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eimas, P. D. & Nygaard, L. C. (1992). Contextual coherence and attention in phoneme monitoring. Journal of Memory and Language 31(3), 375–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foss, D. J. (1969). Decision processes during sentence comprehension: effects of lexical item difficulty and position upon decision times. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 8, 457–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foss, D. J. (1998). Two strands of scholarship on language comprehension: phoneme monitoring and discourse context. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 27(2), 191–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grote, K. & Linz, E. (2003). The influence of sign language iconicity on semantic conceptualization. In Müller, W. G. & Fischer, O. (eds), From sign to signing: iconicity in language and literature (Vol. 3, pp. 23–40). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosvald, M., Lachaud, C. & Corina, D. (2012). Handshape monitoring: evaluation of linguistic and perceptual factors in the processing of American Sign Language. Language and Cognitive Processes 27(1), 117–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haiman, J. (1980). The iconicity of grammar: isomorphism and motivation. Language 56(3), 515–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, P. C., Paludneviciene, R., Riddle, W., Kurz, K. B., Emmorey, K. & Contreras, J. (2016). American Sign Language comprehension test: a tool for sign language researchers. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 21(1), 64–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hauser, P., Paludneviciene, R., Supalla, T. & Bavelier, D. (2008). American Sign Language-Sentence Reproduction Test: development and implications. In de Quadros, R. M. (ed.), Sign language: spinning and unraveling the past, present and future (pp. 160–172). Petrópolis: Arara Azul.Google Scholar
Howell, T. A. & Bernstein Ratner, N. (2018). Use of a phoneme monitoring task to examine lexical access in adults who do and do not stutter. Journal of Fluency Disorders 57, 65–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, J., Damian, M. F. & Spalek, K. (2013). Distractor frequency effects in picture–word interference tasks with vocal and manual responses. Language and Cognitive Processes 28(5), 615–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imai, M. & Kita, S. (2014). The sound symbolism bootstrapping hypothesis for language acquisition and language evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369(1651) 20130298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnston, T. & Schembri, A. (1999). On defining lexeme in a sign language. Sign Language & Linguistics 2, 115–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kantartzis, K. (2011). Children and adults’ understanding and use of sound-symbolism in novel words . Unpublished dissertation, University of Birmingham. Retrieved from <https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/2997/2/Kantartzis_11_PhD.pdf>.Google Scholar
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B. & Christensen, R. H. B. (2017). lmerTest package: tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software 82(13), https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, vol. 2: descriptive application. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R. W. (2008). Cognitive grammar: a basic introduction. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepic, R. (2015). Motivation in morphology: lexical patterns in ASL and English. Unpublished dissertation, University of California, San Diego, CA. Retrieved from <https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5c38w519>.Google Scholar
Lepic, R., Börstell, C., Belsitzman, G. & Sandler, W. (2016). Taking meaning in hand: iconic motivations in two-handed signs. Sign Language and Linguistics 19(1), 37–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lepic, R. & Padden, C. (2017). A-morphous iconicity. In Bowern, C., Horn, L. and Zanuttini, R. (eds), On looking into words (and beyond): structures, relations, analyses (pp. 489–516). Berlin: Language Science Press.Google Scholar
Manoiloff, L., Segui, J. & Hallé, P. (2016). Subliminal repetition primes help detection of phonemes in a picture: evidence for a phonological level of the priming effects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 69(1), 24–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moravcsik, E. A. (1978). Reduplicative constructions. In Greenberg, J. H. (ed.), Word structure (pp. 297–334). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Morford, J. P. & Carlson, M. L. (2011). Sign perception and recognition in non-native signers of ASL. Language Learning & Development 7(2), 149–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Motamedi, Y., Little, H., Nielsen, A. & Sulik, J. (2019). The iconicity toolbox: empirical approaches to measuring iconicity. Language and Cognition 11(2), 188–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Occhino, C. (2016). A cognitive approach to phonology: evidence from signed languages . Unpublished dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. Retrieved from <https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/46>.Google Scholar
Occhino, C. (2017). An introduction to Embodied Cognitive Phonology: Claw-5 handshape distribution in ASL and Libras. Complutense Journal of English Studies 25, 69–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Occhino, C., Anible, B., Wilkinson, E. & Morford, J. P. (2017). Iconicity is in the eye of the beholder: how language experience affects perceived iconicity. Gesture 16(1), 100–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ormel, E., Knoors, H., Hermans, D. & Verhoeven, L. (2009). The role of sign phonology and iconicity during sign processing: the case of deaf children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 14(4), 485–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ortega, G. (2017). Iconicity and sign lexical acquisition: a review. Frontiers in Psychology 8, https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01280CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ortega, G., Sümer, B. & Özyürek, A. (2017). Type of iconicity matters in the vocabulary development of signing children. Developmental Psychology 53(1), 89–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Östling, R., Börstell, C. & Courtaux, S. (2018). Visual iconicity across sign languages: large-scale automated video analysis of iconic articulators and locations. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00725CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Padden, C., Hwang, S.-O., Lepic, R. & Seegers, S. (2015). Tools for language: patterned iconicity in sign language nouns and verbs. Topics in Cognitive Science 7, 81–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Padden, C., Meir, I., Hwang, S., Lepic, R., Seegers, S. & Sampson, T. (2013). Patterned iconicity in a new sign language. Gesture 13(3), 287–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perniss, P., Thompson, R. & Vigliocco, G. (2010). Iconicity as a general property of language: evidence from spoken and signed languages. Frontiers in Psychology, 1, https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00227CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pietrandrea, P. (2002). Iconicity and arbitrariness in Italian Sign Language. Sign Language Studies 2(3), 296–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pizzuto, E. & Volterra, V. (2000). Iconicity and transparency in sign languages: a cross-linguistic cross-cultural view. In Emmorey, K. & Lane, H. (eds), The signs of language revisited: an anthology to honor Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima (pp. 261–286). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Psychology Software Tools (2012) E-Prime 2.0 (Version 2.0). Retrieved from <http://www.pstnet.com>..>Google Scholar
R Core Team. (2019). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from <http://www.R-project.org/>..>Google Scholar
Ratcliff, R. (1994). Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers. Psychological Bulletin 114(3), 510–532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reed, A. V. (1973). Speed–accuracy trade-off in recognition memory. Science 181(4099), 574–576.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russo, T. (2004). Iconicity and productivity in sign language discourse: an analysis of three LIS discourse registers. Sign Language Studies 4(2), 164–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapir, E. (1921). Language: an introduction to the study of speech. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace & Company.Google Scholar
Sobczak, J. M. & Gaskell, M. G. (2019). Implicit versus explicit mechanisms of vocabulary learning and consolidation. Journal of Memory and Language 106, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R. L., Vinson, D. P. & Vigliocco, G. (2009). The link between form and meaning in American Sign Language: lexical processing effects. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 35(2), 550–557.Google ScholarPubMed
Thompson, R. L., Vinson, D. P. & Vigliocco, G. (2010). The link between form and meaning in British Sign Language: effects of iconicity for phonological decisions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 36(4), 1017–1027.Google ScholarPubMed
Ullmann, S. (1962). Semantics: an introduction to the science of meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vinson, D. P., Cormier, K., Denmark, T., Schembri, A. & Vigliocco, G. (2008). The British Sign Language (BSL) norms for age of acquisition, familiarity, and iconicity. Behavior Research Methods 40(4), 1079–1087.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vinson, D. P., Thompson, R. L., Skinner, R. & Vigliocco, G. (2015). A faster path between meaning and form? Iconicity facilitates sign recognition and production in British Sign Language. Journal of Memory and Language 82, 56–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, S. (2004). Conceptual spaces and embodied actions: cognitive iconicity and signed languages. Cognitive Linguistics 15(2), 119–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar