Iconicity of syntax and narrative in Amerindian prosaic texts

Abstract

AbstractThe notion that the form of a word bears an arbitrary relation to its meaning accounts only partly for the attested relations between form and meaning in the world's languages. Recent research suggests a more textured view of syntactic and narrative structure in Amerindian prosaic texts, in which arbitrariness is complemented by iconicity (aspects of form resemble aspects of meaning) and systematicity (statistical regularities in forms predict function).