Semantics and Depiction

Although natural languages are often taken to be the prototypical case of the use of arbitrary symbols to encode ideas, it is also clear that linguistic communication across all modalities frequently incorporates iconic elements. How exactly symbolic and iconic aspects of language interact is an area of active research on spoken and signed languages and gesture studies across the cognitive sciences, and this Element overviews approaches to modeling their interaction. The case is made that while both symbolic and iconic content are pervasive in language, they contribute meaning in ways more separate than typically assumed: propositional meaning is built entirely from symbolic abstractions and can be the input for compositional structures that involve reasoning over alternatives; in contrast, iconic depictions within a compositional system are understood as particulars. Depiction is also contrasted with other senses of iconicity in language. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.