Line Brandt, working paper, AU, December 2003.

Seven types of iconicity

for Frank

Inspired by the research meeting on poetic verse at Center for Semiotics, AU (18 December 2003), with MA Frank Kjrup as our guest researcher, author of Sprog versus sprog. Mod en versets poetik1, a Jacobsonean poetics (Museum Tuscalanums Forlag, Kbenhavns Universitet 2003), I propose a tentative model of the semiotic structure of poetic texts, relating different levels of an overall sign structure to iconicity as a device. Borrowing from the semiotic framework of L. Hjelmslev, seven overall sign relations are sketched out. Having outlined these levels of interconnected sign relations, I sort out the different possible iconicity relations, of which I have found seven. Note that these seven iconicity relations, though described with reference to them, do not correspond directly to the seven sign relations.

The seven sign relations in poetic texts The Hjelmslevian concept of a sign, as divisible into expression and content (following Saussure), and furthermore into form and substance2, yielding a quadruple partitioning, is a useful framework for our analysis. I will extend its use beyond the purely linguistic (from the phonological to the morphological to the lexical to the syntactic) to encompass larger structures (text) as well as structures that are specifically non-linguistic (rhythm). In the following, the expression plane and the content plane will sometimes also be referred to simply as signifiant (sa) and signifi (s). The 1st sign relation is that of semantic content. The 2nd is phonemic expression. The 3rd is the relation between the two, subsumed as language. The 4th is rhythm. The 5th semiotic plane concerns the relation between rhythm and language. The 6th the relation between written and oral text (in so far as it is relevant). The 7th

1 2

Museum Tuscalanums Forlag, Kbenhavns Universitet 2003. L. Hjelmslev, Omkring Sprogteoriens Grundlggelse, The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1993, 13. Udtryk og indhold, pp. 44-55.

the relation between the rhetorics and the imagery of the poem, viewed as a whole.

Each semiotic plane, or layer, is part of another sign on another level, in a cumulative fashion. The 7th sign relation hence embeds all of the former.

Language. The linguistic meaning of a poem consists of two planes, that of sound and that of imagery, one standing as a sign of the other. However, these two planes of linguistic signification can be further analyzed as two independently significant planes. Starting with the content side of linguistic signification, semantic content can be analyzed as a semiotic unit with four distinguishable aspects to it: expressive form and expressive substance along one axis, and content form and content substance along the other:

The syntactic constructions linearized in verbalization or inner prosody3 signify specific semantic construals, shaped by the viewpoint of the experiencer of the referential content the voice and further shaped by the experiencer as a first-hand or second-hand receiver (the meta-conscious poet or the second-person audience). This semiotic plane, in turn, functions as signifi (s) for the second semiotic plane, the phonemic expression, the signifiant (sa) of the third semiotic plane (the language aspect of a poem):

The presupposition here is that language is essentially voiced, in some more or less concrete sense; that prosody underlies any piece of discourse, whether recited orally, or privately (or signed, gesturally, for that matter). Hjelmslev, admittedly, did not subscribe to such an idea. But, experientially, how would one go about reading, hearing, or speaking a sentence, or some other linguistic product, and not hear (or see) it being produced?

A special attribute of poetry is the attention it creates around the sonic aspect of language; the sound of a poem is part of its meaning, in some cases even exclusively (cf. sonic poetry). The phonesthetic qualities of certain consonants or consonant clusters can perhaps best be described as emotive in content. Aside from forming semantic clusters (see for instance B. K. Shislers Dictionary of English Phonesthemes4), some sounds may have a hard feel while others have a soft feel, some may feel hushed, others noisy. Nasals may be especially suitable for expressing pleasurable sensations, while stop plosives have a more aggressive effect, sounding harsh or abrasive. Following this idea, the phonemic signifiant of linguistic signification can be said to form a semiotic plane of its own, with phonemic structure signifying some (vaguely defined) emotive content that is experienced with the senses (content substance: sensation). The expression substance, which is, as Hjelmslev points out, dependent on the expression form, is the pronunciation of the phonemes. While the phonemes are stable, given their fixed forms, their pronunciation may vary from speaker to speaker and from one recitation to the next.

These two semiotic planes, the phonemic and the semantic, form a third level of signification:

www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phond1.html. See also Margaret Magnus page: www.conknet.com/~mmagnus/LetterPage.html

It goes beyond the scope of this paper to go into exactly how phonology, morphology, lexicology and syntax interrelate. However, I have included a sketch for future development (see appendix).

Rhythm. The fourth sign relation is that of rhythm. Whether metered or not, the lines in a poem proceed rhythmically. The rhythmic properties of metered verse afford a special kind of musical quality. Rhythm can be viewed as a product of a sign relation between metre as expression form and metre as content form.

Metre as expression form is the syllabic actualization of each line, of each stanza. We can call this the overt metre. The overt metre is actualized by language (or languagelike phonemic forms5). Underlying the overt metre is the metrical structure which is sensed alongside the actualization of each line, which we can call the covert metre. The covert metre is the underlying beat. The beat is experienced in a material sense: with the body, and is often accompanied by (real or imagined) bodily gestures. The rhythm is a product of the relation between these two levels, between, in a sense, an expectation the patterned metre, the beat and a realization which gratifies the expectation, either by following the pattern, or by straying from it. An iambic line may have a trochaic actualization, for instance, or an anapestic metrical foot may be replaced by a dactyl, or, say, one stressed syllable and silence where the two unstressed syllables would have been. The result is syncopation, borrowing a term from the realm of music. (I will return to this matter in The seven types of iconicity in poetic text, section 4., see below.) A discord between content form and expression form can be accentuated or downplayed in a recitation. Downplaying it, the recitation may favor the underlying

Thinking of a poem, a stanza, or a line, as a succession of da-da-dums can aid both in the creation of a poem, to keep the metre in check, and in the retrieval from memory of a specific line, stanza, poem. In Danish, this phenomenon is called masked verse; you fill in the metre with blah blah... or similar void consonant-vowel phones. This is equivalent to scat in the genre of jazz music; instead of singing words with meanings, one sings doo-bee-doo-bee-doo or whatever succession of sounds come to mind. The focus is on rhythm, rather than meaning (lyrics).

metre and go against linguistic form, bringing attention to a linguistic unit (a word, a phrase) by thwarting its syllabic structure. Alternatively, a compromise may be sought: an attempt at leveling out the stress pattern altogether, for instance by adding equal stress to every syllable, thus disguising the discord. Recitation is the expression substance, including features such as speed, intonation and pitch, which can be varied at a whim for theatrical effect from recital to recital, yielding prominence to different elements, directing attentional focus, and adding affective emphasis. At the overall structural level, rhythm is the expressive means of conveying linguistic content. The fifth sign relation, then, is the one between rhythm (sa) and language (s):

The graphical/choreographical meta-level. In the case of written poetry, the material properties of the text yields certain extra affordances at the level of expression. The concrete letters on a page add a visual element to the aesthetic experience. This feature can be playfully exploited, calling attention to language as orthography, or by crafting the distribution of lines on the page in a way that suggests the blank spaces be read as silences, or letting the lines

form patterns or shapes, inciting a dialogue a semiotic exchange with the abstract content of the poem (rhythmic, phonemic and semantic content). I suppose it is also possible to employ concretist strategies in oral recitals of poems; here the body of the reciter can be exploited for its motoric and gestural affordances. For the sake of argument let me give an example: borrowing from the genre of drama, the reciter could be instructed to walk in a circle while reciting a poem on, say, the life cycle of man, or walk in a square while reciting a poem on conventionality, or vice versa. Or his steps could mark the contour of a hat, for no apparent reason. The relation could be other than iconic, it could be symbolic, or it could be entirely arbitrary. Note that I am talking only about the relation between the choreographical (or graphical) sign level and the poem as abstract (rhythmic and linguistic) structure. Aside from that, there may be iconicity relations at the graphical/choreographical performance level when the signs are considered irrespective of their relation to other signs in the poem. Walking in a circle, for instance, or a hat, is a way of engaging iconic signs at the meta-level. The semiotic relation between this expressive meta-level and the poem as sound and meaning is the sixth sign relation:

At the seventh, and final, level, the poem is considered in a more global perspective. The seventh sign relation concerns the relation between poetic rhetorics and poetic imagery. Larger units of semantic construals, phonemic patterns, rhythmic structures, etc. are taken into account and their effects on the global imagery of the poem are considered. Preceding an interpretation of the poem as a comprehensive whole is a description of the expressive means employed throughout the poem and the impression the overall rhetorics leaves on the global imagery. The analysis concerns structure at all of the previous levels (1 through 6) which are viewed in a larger scale, summarizing previously analyzed details as features of an overall compositional scheme. Relevant to analysis at this level are the rhetorical aspects of composition

such as: punctuation and variation in the length of sentences (if it applies), the length of lines in relation to one another, the length of stanzas, the use of tropes, recurring motifs, themes etc. The signified poetic imagery (s) is viewed in relation to the signifiers (sa):

Summary. Below is an overview of the seven sign relations and how they intersect:

1) Semantic content: Sa: Construction S: Construal

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2) Phonemic expression: Sa: Phonemic structure S: Emotive content

3) Language Sa: (2) S: (1)

4) Rhythm Sa: Overt (materialized) metrical structure S: Covert (underlying) metrical structure: the beat

5) Relation between rhythm and language Sa: (4) S: (3)

6) Relation between written and oral text Sa: Concrete expression (on page) S: (5) (poem as abstract structure)

7) Relation between the rhetorics and the global imagery of the poem Sa: (6) S: Imagery

These interconnections are diagrammed below (using the terms expression (E) and content (C)):

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The 8th semiotic level would be the level of comparative studies: viewing the poem in relation to previous and later work by the same and other authors. I am thinking, for instance, of the possibility of entering into a dialogue with poetic tradition by altering the structure of a particular typically named kind of verse, as it happened historically with the sonnet which in the English tradition has a form that is slightly different from the original Italian one. Adding slight, or groundbreaking, variations in the metre, say, by altering a foot, or altering an entire line or the distribution of lines or whole stanzas, is an expressive act in an historical context, in diachronic tradition. Its function is expressive, not only within a given poem, but extending into the history of literature, on which it is a comment hence it

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is part of a dialogue, and once read, or heard, by other poets such a comment can be addressed in future turn-takings; the new form may be adopted, ignored, or further developed. Variations, in this scope, is not poem-internal, but rather poem-historical. Relating this to a sign structure with a signifiant and a signifi, the signifiant is the metre employed in the poem, which in itself has a full sign structure (cf. figure 4), while the signifi is the tradition in which the verse is inscribed, the (sub)genre, and which is referenced, implicitly, by the similarity as well as dissimilarity displayed.

The seven types of iconicity in poetic texts At least seven types of iconicity can be distinguished using the laid-out framework of sign relations in poetry. These are of course all potential realms for exploitation. The only necessary kind of iconicity is in the relation between the linear progression of text and the progressive manifestation of referential content, that is, between the order in which language is conveyed and the order in which thought content is conveyed, which I have left out.6

1. Rhetorics and imagery. The first type concerns the relation between the rhetorics of a poem and the global imagery (cf. sign relation 7). Included are, for instance, iconicity of temperature and of temporal structure. Examples of the former would be angry poems written angrily, or dream-like imagery written in the language of dreams. The absence of iconicity at this level is felt by some to diminish the literary quality of a poem. At the Annual Summer School in Cognitive Semiotics, 2003, an online analysis of Shakespeares fever sonnet (Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever) led to a discussion on cognitive poetics touching on this subject. Some scholars were of the opinion that the poetic voice of the sonnet ought to have mirrored better the sentiment of the poem. The line of thinking seems to go something like this: if the experiencer of the poem is feverish then the poetic style, too, should be feverish. If the voice is that of a lovesick man, bordering on madness, then how can his discourse be so sound how can such an individual count out metrical feet and present his anguished state of mind in such an eloquent, coherent manner?
This is a truth with modifications: there is always some iconicity in the relation between expression and content at the rhythmic level, see section 4.
6

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I, for my part, would argue that it is a typical characteristic of literature as text (cf. the French criture) to display a discrepancy between the level of excitement in the imagery and the temperature of the voice. Borrowing examples from the genre of fiction, some of the most startling narratives are those that describe trivial events with a disquieting passion, and the most chilling narratives those that present highly disturbing material, vile human behavior, in a dispassionate, detached style of narration. In some cases, again using fiction for examplification, the lack of iconicity aniconicity? is what makes a literary work work. Pornographic literature, as Susan Sontag also points out in her essay on G. Batailles Story of the Eye, ceases to be pornographic if the narrating voice is as aroused as the arousing narrative. As for Shakespeares sonnet, one might point out that the use of thematic metaphor hyperbolizes the poets distress, and makes the poem dramatically pregnant with emotion. The metaphors employed make the temperature of the poem rise. I am not convinced that substituting the voice with that of a hysterically rambling one would in fact enhance the quality of the poem. Too much agitation tends to render the expression of emotion ineffective, if not outright comical. In conclusion, I would say that iconicity of temperature is a literary potential, but not one that decides the literary effect produced in any straighforward way. By iconicity of temporal structure I am referring to a structuring of material that has the order of disclosure match the order of sequentially experienced events. We can call this chronological concord. In contrast, chronological discord achronicity? can be employed for dramatic effect; the poet may start by conveying his sullen mood and proceed to disclose what caused it, or in some other way cut up and rearrange material, shuffling the order of events.

2. The graphical/choreographical meta-level. The second type of iconicity concerns the relation between concrete properties of written text material expression and the poem as a mental abstraction (cf. sign relation 6). In the unmarked case (borrowing a term from linguistics) no such iconicity exists. When it does, such poems are endowed with a specifying predication: these are concretist poems (or poems with concretist features). Introducing the poem into the visual modality brings certain perceptual affordances. Attention is directed to the

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perceptual Gestaltung of written signs figures or letters as shapes that can be compared to one another, quantitatively and qualitatively, that can be grouped and are distributed in a particular way on the page, possibly echoing some figurative content in the language of the poem.

3. Metre. The third iconicity relation is that between overt and covert metre. In metered poetry, the expression form mirrors the content form, by default. However, the result can be rather monotonous, mechanical or stiff, so poets often prefer to vary the stress pattern at the level of the expressive form, which is accomplished by letting the inherent stress patterns of the chosen words and phrases override the stress pattern of the underlying metre, while respecting the number of metrical feet (e.g. five iambic feet in an iambic pentameter). Shakespeares plays are good examples of this strategy, as every line is not meant to be spoken thus: u u u u u (which would likely have the audience in a stupor, or pulling out their hair, before long). This kind of aniconicity, also discussed above (in the section on Rhythm) is intricately related to language use, but not exclusively. What I have in mind here is 1) instances where a stanza sets itself apart (in relation to previous stanzas) by an unwarranted variation on the length of one or more of its lines, to produce some desired effect; 2) instances where the covert beat is mirrored at the overt level but the stress pattern is not; 3) instances where neither beat nor stress pattern is mirrored on the overt level because the linguistic structure defines a different structure, which is experienced with the covert beat and metre as background, and 4) instances where silence replaces a metrical foot, the stressed beat in a metrical foot, or one or more of the unstressed beats. If we think of the covert metre in terms of music, the stressed and unstressed elements corresponds to the beats which, taken together, make up the beat. The beat defines the tempo, musically speaking. Furthermore, the structure lasting from one beat to another the elements making up a metrical foot corresponds to a beat in a bar. A bar, then, is a line made up of a number of metrical feet such as, for instance, iambs. The feet making up a bar have some duration, a relative quantity of time which can be filled out in different ways, respecting the beat, or going against the

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beat. Going against the beat means going against the stressed beat in a given foot, in which case we get counter-beat. The number of feet that make up a bar has a natural limit (my guess is somewhere around seven), and the number of beats that make up a foot is also limited. The duration of a foot is shaped by our cognitive apparatus: our bodily memory and sense of number (cf. studies in cognitive psychology on perception of number), and the succession of feet, and bars, fall naturally into a cyclical pattern that is highly embodied, in poetry, in music, in dance. In a similar manner there is a limit to how a beat can be subdivided. The quantity-defined abstract entity, or format, corresponding to a foot in a line, or bar, is made up of beats that can be instantiated differently at the overt level. The beats can be understood as temporal quantities which we might call quants. We can encounter variations (aniconicities) in the metrical filling out of a quant; if we think of the overt beats as notes filling out the (covert) beats in each foot, the duration of a quant may be filled out with notes of long or short duration, and may be made up of more than one note. If we have an anapestic foot at the level of covert metre (three beats), this foot might have the two unstressed beats instantiated by four notes instead of just two, for instance. In poetry this kind of rhythmic instantiation of metre is linguistic (except in the case of nonsense verse and masked verse, cf. footnote # 5). But for now I am trying to abstract linguistic structure away from the question of metre. In sum, there are three aspects of metre which the overt actualization at the expression level of the sign can mirror (iconically) or deviate from: the instantiation of each quant in a foot, the stress pattern of a given metrical foot, and the number of feet relative to a line, or bar. Deviation can happen by the means of language as well as by the distribution of silences: silent unstressed beats in a foot, silent feet, and silent bars.

4. Rhythm and language. The fourth type of iconicity concerns the relation between rhythm and language (cf. sign relation 5), as mentioned above. What I have in mind here, is the relations between rhythm and linguistic structure and between metre and semantic content, respectively.

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Iconicity in the firstmentioned relation is agreement between the covert metre and the linguistic realization of the overt metre (cf. the section on sign relation 4), that is, when the phonemic and grammatical structure of the linguistic expressions are in exact accordance with the metre (e.g. Jeg gik mig over s og land / Der mdte jeg en gammel mand, insert English example here). The pattern of iconicity can be broken by (a) not matching each note (stressed or unstressed beat) in every metrical foot with a linguistic (syllabic) equivalent, and (b) having the linguistic structure go against the metrical foot. An example of (a), from an English nursery rhyme: Row, row, row your boat / Gently down the stream / Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily / Life is but a dream. In the first line the covert metrical structure is: u u u u, while the syllabic instantiation is like this: [u] [u] u [u]. The line follows the beat but does not fill out every note of the trochaic metre. The third line also follows the beat but an extra syllable is added to each foot at the linguistic level (uu) which, in musical terms (cf. section 3 on metre) corresponds to a triplet. Lines 2 and 4 leave the three last notes blank: u u [u u]. (Blank notes can be read as silence, though since this text is actually meant to be sung, the final note may be drawn out and made to last longer). These lines exemplify how a syncopated rhythm can be achieved by means other than linguistic ones. Rhythm has to do with accord versus syncopation, and the alternation of the two. The experience of these phenomena, the experience of a counter-beat for instance, can be explained by viewing rhythm as the product of a sign relation with an expression and a content side. Syncopation, linguistic or otherwise materialized, brings attention to the beat and, when administered deftly, enhances enjoyment of the rhythm. An example of (b): My reason, the physician to my love, / Angry that his prescriptions are not kept (Shakespeares sonnet 147, lines 5-6). Here, the first foot of the second line an iamb is actualized, instead, by a trochee: cp. [angry] and [angry]. This kind of discord loosens up the rhythm. In some cases it can be used as a poetic device, to draw attention to a specific linguistic unit, a word or a phrase.

As to the relation between metre and semantic content, iconicity may manifest itself as homogeny of metre and local imagery, as in the following lines by Drachmann:

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Jeg hrer i natten den vuggende / Lyd af Venezias Vand (approximative translation: I hear in the night the soft slumbering / Voice of Venezias waves, literally: I hear in the night the rocking / Sound of Venezias water) where the motion of the water is echoed in the rhythmic flow of the lines. In this example the iconic relation is between the semantic content and the content substance aspect of the rhythm as a sign. There are other possibilities for instance, an iconic, or significantly aniconic, relation may exist between semantic content and rhythm as a whole (the whole sign). Borrowing an observation by Stockwell in his 2002 book on cognitive poetics (Cognitive Poetics: an Introduction, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 1-3), though wording it differently, Robert Brownings poem The Lost Leader makes use of this kind of aniconicity. The disruptions and reductions of the hexameter the heroic alexandrine of Homers verse serve as a device to reflect expressively the poets diminished esteem of Wordsworth who is dismissed as a has-been hero, a fallen icon, in the poem. Here, an amputated line can be read allegorically, indexically.

5. Semantic content and phonemically expressed emotion. The fifth type of iconicity is to be found in the relation between semantic content, or the mood conveyed in the semantic content (locally, or globally), and emotive content of phonemic structure (cf. sign relation 2). An example of the first would be a line (or entire poem) about smashing pottery which makes frequent use consonant clusters and word-initial and final stops. An example of the latter would be using the same devices to express, and even help create, an aggressive mood, in accordance with the phonetic qualities of fury. Note, by the way, that swearwords and words suited for name-calling typically start and end with stops and fricatives, in English as well as in Danish (and other languages). By this token, words sounding like mim or eda, for instance, are not be good candidates for effective verbal abuse (cf. the notion of phonesthemes).

6. Onomatopoeia. The sixth type of iconicity ties in with the fifth. It lies in the relation between phonemic structure and semantics, at the word level. Words that emulate their referents at the level of the signifiant, their referents being things that have sounds associated with them, are traditionally referred to as onomatopoeic. Examples,

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inspired by our hypothetical poem about smashing pottery, are words like clunk, crash and pow. Note that some phonesthemes are onomatopoeic, in English for instance the word shush.

7. Syntactic iconicity. The seventh type of iconicity relates to syntax at the semantic level, that is, to the relation between construction and construal (cf. sign relation 1). I am referring here to what is known in linguistics as syntactic iconicity. A given syntactic construction may signal duration, for instance, as in: He ran and ran and ran, or sequentiality, as in He brushed his teeth and kissed his wife, or causality, or other aspects of a scenario. The following sentence is an example of causal iconicity: My reason, the physician to my love, angry that his prescriptions are not kept, has left me. The cause the physicians anger is introduced prior to its effect his leaving.

Summary. The seven types of iconicity: 1) Rhetorics and imagery. E.g. temperature, and temporal structure.

2) The graphical/choreographical meta-level. Abstract text versus concrete actualization / performance.

3) Metre.

4) Rhythm and language. The relation between rhythm and linguistic structure The relation between metre and semantic content

5) Semantic content and phonemically expressed emotion. The relation between semantic content and emotive or quasi-semantic content at the phonemic level, cf. phonesthemics.

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6) Onomatopoeia.

7) Syntactic iconicity.

I will continue and end by encouraging further studies into each of these iconicity relations and their literary effects, extending also into the domain of normative aesthetics.

Appendix.

(Jacobson. the form/substance divide corresponds to the syntagm/paradigm distinction)

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