1 FROM LATENT TO BLATANT: UNMASKING PHONOLOGICAL ICONICITY IN SIGN LANGUAGE THEATRE Wendy Sandler University of Haifa ABSTRACT: One of the most important breakthroughs in contemporary phonology was the discovery that the signs of sign languages are comprised of a finite list of formational units which recombine to create large vocabularies. It showed that the property of duality of patterning does not result from the nature of the vocal-auditory channel, but rather characterizes any natural human language, including manual-visual languages. However, sign languages are also unlike spoken languages. In sign languages, unlike spoken languages, form and meaning are closely linked, and iconicity permeates all levels of sign language grammar, including phonology. This chapter reveals the subtle interplay between the meaningless and the meaningful at the phonological level in sign languages, showing that a strict bifurcation is neither warranted nor explanatory. Instead, the ubiquity of iconicity in sign languages reveals the flexibility of human language, a flexibility that is heightened in artistic expression. Authentic examples from sign language theatre show how latent phonological iconicity can be blatantly exploited, becoming a potent aesthetic and communicative tool. 1. Introduction: iconicity in sign language phonology The word ‘iconic’ is popularly used with a variety of meanings. Famous performers are sometimes called iconic, as are brand names and advertising symbols, and people representing particular opinions. In semiotics, according to the Random House Dictionary, an icon is ‘a sign or representation that stands for its object [or action] by virtue of resemblance or analogy to it.’ The signs of sign languages are often iconic in this sense: they look like what they mean, giving the impression that they are holistic icons. 1 For example, the sign TAKE in Israeli Sign Language (ISL) looks like gripping an object and moving it toward oneself (Figure 1). 2 1 I follow earlier work in distinguishing iconicity from mimesis. In sign languages, “iconicity creates a likeness of an object or concept symbolically, through a configuration of the hands (or the mouth). It is to be contrasted with mimesis, which uses [the body] to replicate itself …. The distinction … reflects qualitatively different types of representation.” (Sandler 2009 p251). Here the focus is on iconicity. 2 Unless otherwise indicated, examples in this chapter are from Israeli Sign Language (ISL), but they demonstrate general properties of sign languages.