Motivational or arbitrary relationships for prosody in general, and imitative prosody in particular. It should be noted that, while not the main focus of this report, these subsections pose the delicate problem of pairing diachrony and synchrony.
– [I.1.]. Form-meaning indexicality for some prosodic signs. We first extend Gussenhoven’s analysis of the biological codes of prosody in several ways: on the one hand, by considering prosodic signifiers comprehensively (and not just melody); on the other hand, by considering these relations of meaning as pertaining to only certain parts of the definitions of prosodic signs (and the motivation can then be that of entire prosodic paradigms : We also distinguish between what is indexical and what is iconic in terms of motivation (see below). Similarly, we employ the work of the Scherer school to analyze prosodic emotions. Finally, indexicality as concomitance, a necessary condition for isotopic relations in general, and imitative relations in particular, between verbal and prosodic signs, is dealt with in the syntagmalogy sections.
– [I.2.]. Image iconicity. Sign-internal vs. Sign-external. Parts of the meaning of a sign resembling its form through largely non-contextual considerations (through morphosemantic connections predominant in interpretation) vs. parts of the meaning of a sign resembling its form as a result of largely contextual considerations (through more latent morphosemantic connections, requiring isotopy to be interpreted).
– [I.3]. Diagrammatic iconicity. For our particular purpose, we are presenting equative, privative, scalar and polar diagrams.
– [I.4] Synthesis: indexicality + multitudes of iconicity types: various questions and partial solutions emerge, such as the distribution of their respective roles (different semantic features), difference of viewpoints (e.g. sign scale, paradigm scale; or diachronic vs. synchronic), accumulative effect in the motivation?