The contribution of individual parameters to perceived iconicity and transparency in gesture-sign pairs

It is often assumed that gestures are more iconic than signs, as they do not have to conform
to a linguistic system. This study introduces an expanded methodology to explore
(a) the relative transparency and iconicity of silent gestures and signs, and (b) the iconicity
of three individual parameters (handshape, location and movement). We elicited
meaning guesses and iconicity ratings (both whole-item and for each parameter) from
sign-naive participants for both gestures and signs. Pilot data provide no evidence for
differences in transparency and iconicity of gestures and signs, butwe do find interesting
examples of signs rated as more iconic than gestures. The iconicity of all three parameters
is correlated with the iconicity of the whole item in both gestures and signs, but
there may be a role for iconic strategies and the saliency of individual parameters. With
this method, we provide a novel, more fine-grained manner of investigating iconicity in
the manual modality.