Tonal iconicity and narrative transformation
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Jamin Pelkey
Abstract
Building on recent research, this paper argues that left-right bilaterality and symmetrical reversibility play only a limited role in the embodied grounding of chiasmus and its cognitive and cultural affordances. Expanding such accounts to feature the bodily semiotics of vertical and transverse modeling is necessary. To better demonstrate this point and elaborate on its implications, the paper presents two narrative case studies: Sylvia Plath’s short story ‘Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams’ and Episode 1 of the podcast Dolly Parton’s America, entitled ‘Sad Ass Songs’. Both narratives evoke explicitly embodied blends involving analogous upper-lower body part systems; both integrate these blends with chiastic dynamics that are explicit in the syntax and implicit in the discourse pragmatics of each text; and both texts use these chiastic macro-blends to frame transformations that function as each narrative’s interpretive locus. I explicate these sense-making strategies through a semiotic discourse analysis, applying insights from Peircean semiotics and cognitive linguistics to show how chiastic meaning can be grounded in the coalescence of oppositional but complementary layers of tonal iconicity (felt resemblances) referenced by diagrammatic types and tokens, all of which are implicit in, and intrinsic to, the lived experience of habitual upright posture.
Abstract
Building on recent research, this paper argues that left-right bilaterality and symmetrical reversibility play only a limited role in the embodied grounding of chiasmus and its cognitive and cultural affordances. Expanding such accounts to feature the bodily semiotics of vertical and transverse modeling is necessary. To better demonstrate this point and elaborate on its implications, the paper presents two narrative case studies: Sylvia Plath’s short story ‘Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams’ and Episode 1 of the podcast Dolly Parton’s America, entitled ‘Sad Ass Songs’. Both narratives evoke explicitly embodied blends involving analogous upper-lower body part systems; both integrate these blends with chiastic dynamics that are explicit in the syntax and implicit in the discourse pragmatics of each text; and both texts use these chiastic macro-blends to frame transformations that function as each narrative’s interpretive locus. I explicate these sense-making strategies through a semiotic discourse analysis, applying insights from Peircean semiotics and cognitive linguistics to show how chiastic meaning can be grounded in the coalescence of oppositional but complementary layers of tonal iconicity (felt resemblances) referenced by diagrammatic types and tokens, all of which are implicit in, and intrinsic to, the lived experience of habitual upright posture.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
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Part I. General framework
- The intricate dialectics of iconization and structuration 11
- The iconicity ring model for sound symbolism 27
- Iconicity as a key epistemic source of change in the self 47
- Indexicality and iconization in Mock ing Spanish 63
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Part II. Symmetry
- Iconicity of symmetries in language and in literature 79
- Chiastic iconicity 103
- Tonal iconicity and narrative transformation 135
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Part III. Visual and intermedial iconicity
- Władysław Strzemiński’s theory of vision and Ronald Langacker’s theory of language 155
- Iconicity for an iconoclast 173
- This is not a pipe 193
- Image superimposition in signed language discourse and in motion pictures 213
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Part IV. Gesture and sign language
- Iconicity in gesture 245
- Where frozen signs reclaim iconic ground 265
- Recurring iconic mapping patterns within and across verb types in German Sign Language 289
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Part V. Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism
- Echoes of the past 331
- The correlation between meaning and verb formation in Japanese sound-symbolic words 351
- The phonosemantics of the Korean monosyllabic ideophone ttak 369
- The iconicity of emotive Hijazi non-lexical expressions of disgust 389
- Author index 405
- Subject index 407
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Preface and acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. General framework
- The intricate dialectics of iconization and structuration 11
- The iconicity ring model for sound symbolism 27
- Iconicity as a key epistemic source of change in the self 47
- Indexicality and iconization in Mock ing Spanish 63
-
Part II. Symmetry
- Iconicity of symmetries in language and in literature 79
- Chiastic iconicity 103
- Tonal iconicity and narrative transformation 135
-
Part III. Visual and intermedial iconicity
- Władysław Strzemiński’s theory of vision and Ronald Langacker’s theory of language 155
- Iconicity for an iconoclast 173
- This is not a pipe 193
- Image superimposition in signed language discourse and in motion pictures 213
-
Part IV. Gesture and sign language
- Iconicity in gesture 245
- Where frozen signs reclaim iconic ground 265
- Recurring iconic mapping patterns within and across verb types in German Sign Language 289
-
Part V. Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism
- Echoes of the past 331
- The correlation between meaning and verb formation in Japanese sound-symbolic words 351
- The phonosemantics of the Korean monosyllabic ideophone ttak 369
- The iconicity of emotive Hijazi non-lexical expressions of disgust 389
- Author index 405
- Subject index 407
