Subjectivity, perception and convention in ideophones and iconicity

This paper extends the analysis of subjectivity in Japanese ideophones given by Kawahara (2020) to German ideophones and in doing so proposes an alternative analysis of this subjectivity. Whereas Kawahara (2020) argues that the subjectivity in ideophones arises due to their indeterminate and varying meaning, this analysis instead proposes that ideophones are subjective due to their iconicity and that iconicity itself is inherently subjective due to individuals' differing perceptions of how iconic forms map to real-world referents. In this approach, the subjectivity in ideophones is modelled using the judge index introduced by Lasersohn (2005), alongside a perceptual operator derived from the epistemic alternatives used in the analysis of epistemic modals given by Stephenson (2007). Specifically, the perceptual operator provides a set of worlds, which are compatible with the judge's perception in a given world and at a given time, and in which the iconic relation holds. This iconic meaning component of the ideophone is furthermore separated from its conventionalised meaning component, with the latter contributing meaning in the same manner as arbitrary items in the same grammatical category. For example, the conventionalised meaning component of an adverbial ideophone functions as a modifier of events. This separation of meaning components is shown to provide a partial explanation for the varying at -issue status in ideophones as discussed in Barnes et al. (2022). The final section of the paper also demonstrates how this analysis of subjectivity in iconicity can be applied to further examples of iconicity in spoken language such as iconic enrichments in quotations and vocal gestures.