TY - JOUR
T1 - A faster path between meaning and form? Iconicity facilitates sign recognition and production in British Sign Language
AU - Vinson, David
AU - Thompson, Robin
AU - Skinner, Robert
AU - Vigliocco, Gabriella
N1 - "This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (Grants RES-620-28-6001 and 620-28-6002: Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre, and Grant ES/K001337/1 to D.Vinson), by the European Union (FP6-2004-NESTPATH, Grant 028714 to G. Vigliocco) and by a Birmingham University Fellowship awarded to R. Thompson."
PY - 2015/7
Y1 - 2015/7
N2 - A standard view of language processing holds that lexical forms are arbitrary, and that non-arbitrary relationships between meaning and form such as onomatopoeias are unusual cases with little relevance to language processing in general. Here we capitalize on the greater extent of iconic lexical forms in a signed language (British Sign Language, BSL), to test how iconic relationships between meaning and form may affect lexical processing. In three experiments, we found that iconicity in BSL facilitated picture-sign matching, phonological decision, and picture naming. In comprehension the effect of iconicity did not interact with other factors, but in production it was observed only for later-learned signs. These findings suggest that iconicity serves to activate conceptual features related to perception and action during lexical processing. We suggest that the same should be true for iconicity in spoken languages (e.g., onomatopoeias), and discuss the implications this has for general theories of lexical processing.
AB - A standard view of language processing holds that lexical forms are arbitrary, and that non-arbitrary relationships between meaning and form such as onomatopoeias are unusual cases with little relevance to language processing in general. Here we capitalize on the greater extent of iconic lexical forms in a signed language (British Sign Language, BSL), to test how iconic relationships between meaning and form may affect lexical processing. In three experiments, we found that iconicity in BSL facilitated picture-sign matching, phonological decision, and picture naming. In comprehension the effect of iconicity did not interact with other factors, but in production it was observed only for later-learned signs. These findings suggest that iconicity serves to activate conceptual features related to perception and action during lexical processing. We suggest that the same should be true for iconicity in spoken languages (e.g., onomatopoeias), and discuss the implications this has for general theories of lexical processing.
U2 - 10.1016/j.jml.2015.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.jml.2015.03.002
M3 - Literature review
SN - 0749-596X
VL - 82
SP - 56
EP - 85
JO - Journal of Memory and Language
JF - Journal of Memory and Language
ER -