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Iconicity and naturalness remain controversial concepts in recent linguistic research. The present volume aims to scrutinize unresolved issues of iconicity and naturalness in language. The studies discuss topics such as naturalism in the philosophy of language and the epistemology of linguistics, linguistic iconicity in semiotics, iconic structures in Sign Languages, natural and unnatural sound patterns, the iconic nature of parts of speech, the relation between (un)markedness and naturalness, and lexical and syntactic iconicity. The research conducted is based on sound (meta)theoretical analyses and/or original empirical research. The data and innovative views presented are bound to spark discussion in an age-old debate that has lost nothing of its significance.

Philosophy of language --- Iconicity (Linguistics) --- Language and languages --- Naturalness (Linguistics) --- Philosophy. --- Iconicity (Linguistics). --- Naturalness (Linguistics). --- Natural class (Linguistics) --- Linguistics --- Iconism (Linguistics) --- Icons (Linguistics) --- Semiotics --- Philosophy

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The volume is dedicated to the German linguist Wolfgang Ullrich "Gustav" Wurzel (1940-2001), who has influenced linguistic thought in his work on paradigm-based morphology. All contributors to the volume deal with Wurzel's work and thinking, who in his theoretical writings focused on the concepts of naturalness, markedness and complexity in human language. The authors discuss diachronic and typological aspects of morphology, i.e. the nature of paradigms, the rise and fall of inflectional morphology, and the development and systems of gender marking, also in regard to the interface with phonolo

Grammar, Comparative and general --- Naturalness (Linguistics). --- Inflection. --- Morphology. --- Wurzel, Wolfgang Ullrich. --- Grammar --- Flexion (Linguistique) --- Morphologie (Linguistique) --- Naturalité (Linguistique) --- Naturalness (Linguistics) --- Natural class (Linguistics) --- Inflectional morphology --- Wurzel, W. U. --- Wurzel, Gustav --- Linguistics --- Morphology (Linguistics) --- Inflection --- Language and languages --- Morphology --- Philology --- Grammar, Comparative and general Morphology

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The idea that some aspects of language are 'natural', while others are arbitrary, artificial or derived, runs all through modern linguistics, from Chomsky's GB theory and Minimalist program and his concept of E- and I-language, to Greenberg's search for linguistic universals, Pinker's views on regular and irregular morphology and the brain, and the markedness-based constraints of Optimality Theory. This book traces the heritage of this linguistic naturalism back to its locus classicus, Plato's dialogue Cratylus. The first half of the book is a detailed examination of the linguistic arguments in the Cratylus. The second half follows three of the dialogue's naturalistic themes through subsequent linguistic history - natural grammar and conventional words, from Aristotle to Pinker; natural dialect and artificial language, from Varro to Chomsky; and invisible hierarchies, from Jakobson to Optimality Theory - in search of a way forward beyond these seductive yet spurious and limiting dichotomies.

Language and languages --- Naturalness (Linguistics) --- Philosophy. --- Plato. --- Langage et langues --- Naturalité (Linguistique) --- Philosophy --- Philosophie --- Historical linguistics --- Plato --- Natural class (Linguistics) --- Linguistics --- Langage --- Philosophie du langage --- Platon (0427?-0348? av. j.-c.) --- Platon (0427?-0348? av. j.-c.). cratyle --- Signe (linguistique)