phonetic Iconicity: Relationship between Sound Patterns and Meaning

Saussure’s view of conventional/arbitrary relationship between the signifier (sound patterns/words) and the signified (meanings) has governed the mainstream of modern linguistics and been represented as a linguistic premise. However, by giving counterexamples from a large variety of world languages, numerous studies have questioned the Saussurean view since the late 1920s. The studies have demonstrated that the relationships between the sound patterns and the meanings in these counterexamples are “iconic” rather than conventional/arbitrary. By reviewing a number of the major studies, the present paper aims to evaluate the Saussurean view and, finally, to note in passing a very likely new approach to cognitive phonology in terms of the concept of “phonetic iconicity