Analysis of the iconicity of four proposals of neological denominations for Physics (acoustic) concepts in BSL

Abstract

In this paper our goal is analyze the iconic motivation of some neological denominations proposals in the area of Physic acoustics. Thus, the correlation between the iconic referent evoked by the sign’s significant and the terminological concept of  LOUD-SOUND , WEAK-SOUND, LOW-SOUND and HIGH-SOUND will be made. For this analysis we will adopt Taub's analogical iconicity model (2001), designed in the context of cognitive linguistics, which defines linguistic iconicity as the mental mapping of structures preserved in analogical similarity relations between form and meaning.

Our analysis of the four neological terms for acoustic concepts revealed linguistic ambiguities between the forms and concepts. Alternatively, we propose the use of the iconic-metaphorical mapping (as in Taub) for the creation of iconic expressions that do not contradict the concept that they pretend to name, using signs of the common lexicon of LSB, paraphrases of basic concepts in physics and taking advantage of the visual iconicity of several didactic materials used in the teaching of Physics.