Home Linguistics & Semiotics Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku

An attempt at operationalization
  • Elżbieta Tabakowska
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Operationalizing Iconicity
This chapter is in the book Operationalizing Iconicity

Abstract

This chapter analyzes haiku poems written in English, focusing on iconicity as a property of the genre, based on its formal and semantic restrictions. Iconic miming is argued to be an inherent aspect of poetics and Langacker’s theoretical concept of dimensions of imagery in his cognitive theory of language and grammar is presented as an instrument of analysis for the selected poems. The fundamental assumption which underlies the cognitive model of grammar is that language offers to its users alternate ways of construing conceived situations for purposes of linguistic expression, with individual parameters of meaning construal making up a set of dimensions of imagery. Apart from phonemic iconicity, iconic graphic representation and synesthesia, the author illustrates the poets’ use, and the readers’ potential interpretations, of cases of iconicity stemming from such aspects of imagery as the grammatical distinction between things and relations, as well as the oppositions between definiteness and indefiniteness, figure and ground, and temporal and atemporal relations. In conclusion, the author states that though the cognitive theory of construal was formulated as part of a theory of language, the model clearly finds direct application to the analysis of literary texts, with the genre of haiku providing a salient instance.

Abstract

This chapter analyzes haiku poems written in English, focusing on iconicity as a property of the genre, based on its formal and semantic restrictions. Iconic miming is argued to be an inherent aspect of poetics and Langacker’s theoretical concept of dimensions of imagery in his cognitive theory of language and grammar is presented as an instrument of analysis for the selected poems. The fundamental assumption which underlies the cognitive model of grammar is that language offers to its users alternate ways of construing conceived situations for purposes of linguistic expression, with individual parameters of meaning construal making up a set of dimensions of imagery. Apart from phonemic iconicity, iconic graphic representation and synesthesia, the author illustrates the poets’ use, and the readers’ potential interpretations, of cases of iconicity stemming from such aspects of imagery as the grammatical distinction between things and relations, as well as the oppositions between definiteness and indefiniteness, figure and ground, and temporal and atemporal relations. In conclusion, the author states that though the cognitive theory of construal was formulated as part of a theory of language, the model clearly finds direct application to the analysis of literary texts, with the genre of haiku providing a salient instance.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Iconicity in language
  6. Modality-specificity of iconicity 3
  7. The relationship between iconicity and systematicity in Korean ideophones 21
  8. Iconicity of Telugu ideophones and full word reduplications 39
  9. Morphosyntactic integration of ideophones in Japanese and Korean 57
  10. Pathways of de-iconization 75
  11. System-internal and system-external phonic expressivity 105
  12. Part II. Iconicity in literature
  13. On the expressive and iconic value of enjambment from Homer to Milton 125
  14. Language that thinks us 137
  15. Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku 153
  16. Salman Rushdie’s iconic syntax and its translation into French 167
  17. Heart without ‘ the ’ 183
  18. Crisscrossing James Joyce’s Ulysses 199
  19. Part III. Iconicity in visual media
  20. Show me how you feel 213
  21. In the kingdom of shadows 231
  22. Iconicity in branding 245
  23. Resemblance metaphors and embodiment as iconic markers in medical understanding and communication by non-experts 265
  24. Part IV. Iconicity in semiotic analysis
  25. The cognitive function of iconicity 293
  26. The iconic, indexical, and symbolic in language 307
  27. INDEX 327
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.17.09tab

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Part I. Iconicity in language
  6. Modality-specificity of iconicity 3
  7. The relationship between iconicity and systematicity in Korean ideophones 21
  8. Iconicity of Telugu ideophones and full word reduplications 39
  9. Morphosyntactic integration of ideophones in Japanese and Korean 57
  10. Pathways of de-iconization 75
  11. System-internal and system-external phonic expressivity 105
  12. Part II. Iconicity in literature
  13. On the expressive and iconic value of enjambment from Homer to Milton 125
  14. Language that thinks us 137
  15. Levels of iconicity in classical and modern English-language haiku 153
  16. Salman Rushdie’s iconic syntax and its translation into French 167
  17. Heart without ‘ the ’ 183
  18. Crisscrossing James Joyce’s Ulysses 199
  19. Part III. Iconicity in visual media
  20. Show me how you feel 213
  21. In the kingdom of shadows 231
  22. Iconicity in branding 245
  23. Resemblance metaphors and embodiment as iconic markers in medical understanding and communication by non-experts 265
  24. Part IV. Iconicity in semiotic analysis
  25. The cognitive function of iconicity 293
  26. The iconic, indexical, and symbolic in language 307
  27. INDEX 327
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 18.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ill.17.09tab/html
Scroll to top button