Presented by Naomi Caselli, Director BU Deaf Center, Boston University
One unique affordance of the visual-manual modality in sign language is the prevalence of iconicity: the forms of signs often visually resemble their meanings, challenging traditional assumptions that language is fundamentally arbitrary. This talk examines how iconicity shapes the relationship between phonology and semantics in both individual signs and across the lexicon, and investigates the effects of iconicity on sign processing and acquisition. Key questions include whether learners and users can leverage iconicity to facilitate the learning and processing of signs, and whether there are tradeoffs between the effects of iconicity and phonological regularity. Studying these distinctive characteristics of sign languages not only deepens our understanding of sign language itself, but can provide insight into the full breadth of the human capacity for language.