SLE-58 Workshop: Insights Into Lexical Iconicity: Onomatopoeia, Ideophones, and Sound Symbolism
SLE58 WS Iconicity

Date: 26-Aug-2025 – 29-Aug-2025
Location: Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Contact Person: Maria Flaksman
Meeting Email: maria.flaksman@uni-bamberg.de
Web Site: https://societaslinguistica.eu/sle2025/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2024

Meeting Description:

Study of iconic (imitative) words goes beyond lexicology. Iconicity studies, is a rapidly developing branch of linguistics. It employs methods of lexicology, phonetics and phonology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, etymology, language typology, semiotics, semantics and pragmatics, and cognitive sciences.
Lexical iconicity studies focus on origin and evolution, typology, and function of imitative lexical elements both in modern (see Akita 2009, Dingemanse 2012, Enckell & Rézeau 2003, Kakehi et al. 1998, Van Hoey & Thompson 2020, and others) and ancient languages (Malkiel 1990; Flaksman 2024, and others). Also, iconicity deals with less evident cases of form-meaning similarity, such as sound symbolism, including phonaesthemic sound symbolism (Abelin 1999, Jespersen 1933, Ohala 1994; Smith 2016).
There is a great variation within the imitative lexicon, including the variation according to the degree of iconicity. There is a juxtaposition between non-lexicalised ideophones and more lexicalised ones. Thus, a non-lexicalised zzz is more iconic than a lexicalised buzz, a non-lexicalised grr is more iconic than the lexicalised growl (Anderson 1998: 335). The gradation according to degree of iconicity is revealed by means of psycholinguistics (Winter et al. 2024) and etymology (Flaksman 2024).

Workshop focus:

The focus of this workshop is variation in lexical iconicity. We welcome proposals on the linguistic description and comparison of different classes of imitative words (ideophones, onomatopoeic, and sound symbolic words) in languages from across the globe. Thus, we welcome a broad range of talks on all aspects of imitative forms including but not limited to the following:

Word formation and lexical aspects
– borrowing of imitative words
– diachronic changes in imitative words
– onomasiological approaches to iconicity in the lexicon: are there pockets of the lexicon more represented by iconic words?

Experimental studies
– cross-linguistic and experimental studies in sound symbolism
– experimental research on lexical iconicity
– frequency and exposure to iconic words in language learning
– the role of iconicity in structuring the lexicon of learners
– the crossmodal functions of iconicity from an embodiment perspective

Corpus and discourse studies
– onomatopoeic or imitative words from a usage-based perspective in corpora
– the pragmatics of imitative words in interaction and in different genres
– the pragmatics of iconicity in mediated communication (CMC corpora, including emojis, memes, emoticons)
– morphosyntax and collocational behaviour of iconic words: phraseological aspects of iconicity

Typology and theoretical challenges
– onomatopoeic words, their typology and classification
– phonaesthemic sound symbolism
– typology and classification of ideophones
– theoretical aspects of sound symbolism and imitative forms in languages: construction grammar approaches to meaning-form associations
– expressivity and markedness of iconic words; how do frequency, expressivity and innovation coexist alongside iconicity?
– the role of analogy and iconicity in the lexicogrammatical continuum

Thus, the workshop is envisioned as a platform for the discussion on differences and similarities between iconic words and related phenomena in languages from across the globe and on different approaches to their classification and research

Call for Papers:

Workshop organisers: Maria Flaksman (Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg) and Chris Smith (Université Caen Normandie)

Submission of abstracts: Provisional abstracts (300-word, excluding references) for 20-minute presentations should be submitted by 15 November 2024 to maria.flaksman@uni-bamberg.de and chris.smith@unicaen.fr. We will inform all presenters of a preliminary acceptance of their abstracts before the workshop proposal is submitted to the SLE (which is 20 November 2024). If the workshop proposal is accepted, presenters will be asked to submit a 500-word abstract in EasyChair by 15 January 2025.