Iconic sequencing in spoken and signed language

Abstract Saussure’s Principle 1 of arbitrariness and Principle II of linearity are recast in the context of signed language. Arbitrariness and linearity are features of spoken language, in sharp contrast with iconicity and simultaneity of signed language. While arbitrariness and linearity are modality effects of spoken language, iconicity and simultaneity are modality effects of signed language. Only those properties shared by both modalities are the true design features of human language; these are: duality of patterning, conventionalized vocabulary, productivity, syntactic structures, similar timetables of acquisition, and lateralization in the left hemisphere. Furthermore, intonation and co-speech gestures in spoken language can be treated as analogous and parallel to iconicity and simultaneity in signed language. With hidden iconic motivations uncovered in the grammar of spoken language, it stands to reason that the conventionality of human communication must be supplemented with iconic motivations.