By investigating the formal and functional properties and the processing of ideophones and idiomatic signs in spoken and sign languages respectively, this project aims to develop a cross-modal theory of lexicalized demonstrations that can account for modality specific properties, as well as different degrees and kinds of lexicalization.

Research into the semantics of iconicity has become increasingly interested in the role of iconic demonstrations in language. In contrast to frozen iconic expressions, where the iconicity does not contribute to the expression’s semantics, iconic demonstrations are semantically active. Iconic demonstrations have been argued to play a part in multiple constructions in both spoken and sign languages, such as reported speech, ideophones, classifiers and idiomatic signs, among others (cf. Davidson 2015, Henderson 2016, Barnes 2024, Steinbach 2023a a.o.). Of these iconic demonstrations, ideophones and idiomatic signs are particularly interesting. They are lexicalized demonstrations, meaning they have highly conventionalized lexical forms and contain both a conventionalized meaning component and an iconic demonstration in their lexical semantics. This project therefore aims to deepen our understanding of lexicalized demonstrations in spoken and sign languages, using ideophones and idiomatic signs as prototypical examples.

The research will be split into three key modules. Module I will focus on building a lexical database of ideophones in two spoken languages; Akan, as an ideophonic language, German, as a non-ideophonic language, and idiomatic signs in two sign languages, German Sign Language (DGS) and Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). This dataset will be expanded through experiments investigating the formal and functional properties of ideophones and idiomatic signs in all four languages. This detailed dataset will then be made publicly available and form the basis of new teaching and science communication materials for the Deaf community and general public. In Module II, based on the results from Module I, experiments will be conducted on the processing of lexicalized demonstrations in the four languages. Finally, Module III will match the findings of the empirical studies in Module II with a formal and functional analysis of multimodal demonstrations and will develop a new modality-independent formal semantic analysis of lexicalized demonstrations.

Alongside producing a dataset that will be of use for the Deaf community and the general public, this project will improve our understanding of the morphosyntactic and semantic/pragmatic properties of different kinds of lexicalized demonstrations in spoken and sign languages and show how such demonstrations are processed by native speakers and signers. These insights will allow for a theory of lexicalized demonstrations that can account for demonstrations in both modalities and make a significant contribution to ViCom with regards to key questions on different dimensions of meaning, the identification and salience of depictive features, kinds and degrees of iconicity, the relevance of viewpoints and processes of lexicalization and conventionalization.