Metaphors in spoken languages are generated by using a word from a concrete (source)domain and mapping it onto an abstract (target) domain. Thus, one word can haveboth a basic and a metaphorical meaning. Studies on metaphors in sign languages showthat novel metaphorical signs can also appear without a basic but only a metaphoricalmeaning. In addition, metaphorical signs seem to be iconic in general as the sourcedomain usually is iconically depicted and then mapped onto the target domain. Thisiconic mapping is said to be specific to the signed modality. The aim of this paper is toinvestigate if German Sign Language (DGS) exhibits the same patterns. Can we find bothnovel metaphorical signs as well as signs with both a basic and a metaphorical meaning?Do metaphorical signs have to be iconic or can we also find non-iconic metaphoricalsigns? In this study, we investigate and analyze 180 DGS signs from the DGS corpususing corpus-linguistic methods. We find all metaphorical signs of the data set to beiconic in at least one phonological parameter. Further, we also find novel metaphoricalsigns as well as signs with both a basic and a metaphorical meaning.